In an important step, astronomers came close to settling an old debate, agreeing to determine the age of the universe by studying the oldest light in the universe, which was determined to be approximately 14 billion years.

This came in two scientific papers by an international team of scientists at Cornell University and published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astro particle Physics in its December 30th issue.

The oldest light in the universe

Astronomers at the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Sciences of Cornell University took a fresh look at the oldest light in the universe from the Big Bang, with the National Science Foundation's Atacama Cosmology Telescope / ACT).

With these observations obtained by the Atacama telescope, astronomers have reached a new view of the age of the universe, as the researchers used a mixture of data from several telescopes in Chile to understand how fast the universe was expanding, by tracking the age of the last remaining light.

According to the statement issued by Cornell University on January 4, the new observations indicate that the age of the universe is 13.77 billion years.

Scientists used the data of the Atacama telescope to reach the results of the new study (NASA)

The results are identical

In their previous study, cosmologists relied on determining the age of the universe on (Hubble's Law), an approach that relies on measurements of the velocity of divergence of galaxies adjacent to the Milky Way with a certain value of the Hubble constant.

Other measurements - including those of the Atacama Telescope - as well as those made by the European Space Agency's Planck Satellite, relied on the methodology for measuring the oldest light in the universe.

According to the US Space Agency (NASA) website, the data extracted by the Planck Observatory in 2018 are considered the most prominent measurements of the age of the universe that existed before the measurements of the oldest light in the universe that were made through the Atacama telescope.

The Cornell University statement says the new estimates obtained using data collected in the Atacama telescope match those provided by the Standard Model of the Universe, as well as measurements of the same light made by the Planck satellite, which measured the remnants of the Big Bang from 2009 to year 2013.

Scientists have taken a fresh look at the oldest light in the universe caused by the Big Bang (Pablo Carlos Bodassi - Wikimedia Commons)

On the other hand, Steve Choi, an astrophysicist at Cornell University and lead author of one of the two studies, said in the statement, "We have achieved a rate of expansion that matches the measurements of the Planck satellite team, which gives us more confidence in our measurements of the oldest light in the universe."

And according to the Cornell University statement, in 2019, a research team measuring the movements of galaxies estimated that the universe is hundreds of millions of years smaller than the Planck satellite team expected, and this contradiction revealed that a new model is needed to estimate the age of the universe.

However, Simon Ayola - a specialist in astrophysics and the principal investigator of the study - said in a statement by Cornell University, "We have now reached new evidence that confirms what was previously confirmed by the Planck satellite team, which is that the age of the universe is approximately 14 billion years."