Headings The Earth
and Beyond Universe
Search Questions
gcsescience.com 43 gcsescience.com
The Universe - Big Bang - Origin and Age of the Universe.
If the
Universe is expanding, then it
must have been smaller in the
past.
The further back into the past you go, the
smaller the Universe was.
If you
go back far enough in time
the entire Universe seems to have existed at one tiny
point.
This point was the origin (beginning) of
the Universe.
The big bang was an explosion at this point
and the Universe has been expanding away from
this point ever
since.
If you look
at how fast the Universe is expanding
today
then you can make an estimate
(guess)
of the length of time the Universe has been expanding
in order to occupy the size it has
today.
This length of time is the
age of the Universe.
It is
not easy
to estimate the age of the Universe.
Gravity is an
attraction between all the matter in the
Universe.
This attraction tends to slow the rate of
expansion down.
There is another force (called dark energy) which
tends to
push matter apart and speed the rate of
expansion up.
It is believed that the Universe is expanding
more quickly today than it has done in the past.
Taking this into account
scientists estimate the age of the Universe
to be about
14 billion years
(1 billion = 1,000,000,000 or 1 thousand
million).
Headings The Earth
and Beyond Universe
Search Questions
gcsescience.com Contents Index Quizzes gcsescience.com
Copyright © 2008 Dr. Colin France. All Rights Reserved.