Related papers: What is the Universe made of? How old is it?
The age of the universe in the Big Bang model can be calculated from three parameters: Hubble's constant, h; the mass density of the universe, Omega_m; and the cosmological constant, Omega_lambda. Recent observations of the cosmic microwave…
Estimating the age of the Universe is an old problem. Rapid progress in observational cosmology in recent years has led to more accurate values of the fundamental parameters. The current most popular model is a flat Universe, with about 30%…
There are three independent techniques for determining the age of the universe: via cosmochronology of long-lived radioactive nuclei, via stellar modelling and population synthesis of the oldest stellar populations, and via the precision…
If Omega_tot = 1 and structure formed from adiabatic initial conditions then the age of the Universe, as constrained by measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), is t_0=14.0 +/- 0.5 Gyr. The uncertainty is surprisingly small…
Stars account for only about 0.5% of the content of the Universe; the bulk of the Universe is optically dark. The dark side of the Universe is comprised of: at least 0.1% light neutrinos; 3.5% +/- 1% baryons; 29% +/- 4% cold dark matter;…
We are told that we are living in a Golden Age of Astronomy. Cosmological Parameters are found with un precedented accuracy. Yet, the known form of matter forms only a small fraction of the total energy density of the universe. Also, a…
In 1900 it was believed that almost 100% of the mass of the Universe resided in stars. Now, in the year 2000, such stars (and cold gas) are known to account for only ~1% its mass. The remaining mass of the Universe is thought to reside in…
The universe is composed of ordinary matter (for example, stars, planets, ourselves), dark matter and dark energy. The estimated percentage of dark matter is about $27\%$ of the entire universe, while $5\%$ is ordinary matter and the…
The Standard Model of cosmology states a surprising composition of the Universe, in which ordinary matter accounts for less than 5%. The remaining 95% are composed of ~70% Dark Energy and ~25% Dark Matter. However, those two components have…
The discovery ten years ago that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating put in place the last major building block of the present cosmological model, in which the Universe is composed of 4% baryons, 20% dark matter, and 76% dark…
The age of the Universe in the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology with $\Omega_{matter}=0.26$ and $\Omega_{\Lambda}=0.74$ is the same as in the Milne cosmology which correspods to an almost empty universe. In both cases it is a reciprocal Hubble…
The current standard model of cosmology assumes that the majority of matter in the Universe is made of dark matter, and that the latter is fundamentally different from ordinary matter. Dark matter can in principle explain the rotation of…
The discussion of cosmological parameters used to be a source of embarrassment to cosmologists. Today, measurements of the cosmological parameters are leading the way into the era of precision cosmology. The CMB temperature is measured to…
It would be hard to find a cosmologist today who does not believe that the vast bulk of the Universe (ninety-five percent or more) is hidden from our eyes. We review the evidence for this remarkable consensus, and for the latest proposal,…
The age of the Universe at a given redshift is a fundamental relationship in cosmology. For many years, the uncertainties in it were dauntingly large, close to a factor of 2. In this age of precision cosmology, they are now at the percent…
Considering the fact that the present universe might have been formed out of a system of ficticious self-gravitating particles, fermionic in nature, each of mass $m$, we are able to obtain a compact expression for the radius $R_0$ of the…
One of the principal discoveries in modern cosmology is that standard model particles (including baryons, leptons and photons) together comprise only 5% of the mass-energy budget of the Universe. The remaining 95% consists of dark energy…
Over the past three years we have determined the basic features of the Universe -- spatially flat; accelerating; comprised of 1/3 a new form of matter, 2/3 a new form of energy, with some ordinary matter and a dash of massive neutrinos; and…
In this article I review the main methods for determining the age of the Universe. I describe how to determine the age of the oldest known systems at z=0, the system of galactic globular clusters, using different techniques. I also describe…
It is found that the ages of the most metal-poor Galactic globular clusters are probably around 18 Gyr. On the other hand a Hubble parameter of 82 +/- 8 km/sec/Mpc (in conjunction with the standard Einstein-de Sitter model with an Omega =1…