Cosmology 101

please forgive me that I know very little about astronomy or cosmology, my
questions are probably very stupid... but I am just curious.

anyway, I recently read an article which said that the WMAP measurements
indicated that the Universe is some 13.7 billion years old. do you know how
did it derive that number? I mean, the measurements must be based on some
theories, and some basic assumptions, no? I wonder what those assumptions
are? and are they proven correct?

also, it said that it's measuring some background radiation which came from
the time soon after the Big Bang. this doesn't make sense to me... if it's
from the beginning of the universe, how could it just reach the WMAP
instrument now??? shouldn't anything that happened way way back already
passed and diappeared? how could it just reach us today??? I am really
confused.

I sent my questions to WMAP, but nobody cared to answer, they are probably
too busy and don't want to be bothered by this kind of naive questions.

finally, one more stupid question: how come all these astronomy sky maps are
Oval shaped? I think it would be easier to understand if the map's in 3-D,
like a big beach ball or something, with the Solar system somewhere inside
the ball.

thanks in advance for your kind response.
-kc

Hello KC,

I really do not know how they come to this number, may be it has something
to do with the Fibonacci numbers. Do you know the Titius-Bode law? In 1772
he predicted the exact distances of the planets in our solar system and he
was right! It goes something like this:

he idea begins with 0 and then with somewhat arbitrarily uses 3, doubling it
over and over to get 6,12,24,48, and 96. By adding 4 to each number, the
resulting sequence becomes 4,7,10,16,28,52,, and 100. If one then divides
each number by 10, one comes very close to having the correct distances, in
Astronomical Units, of planets from the Sun
- Mercurius = 0,39 AH (close to 0,4)
- Venus = 0,72 AU (close to 0,7)
- Earth = 1,0 AU (AU = 1,0)
- Mars = 1,52 AU (close to 1,6)
- = (close to 2,8)
- Jupiter = 5,20 AU (accurate)
- Saturnus = 9,54 AU (close to 10,0)
- Uranus = 19,2 AU (close to 19,6)
As you see there is no planet at 2,8 AU, but there are asteroides.
Talking about the Universe is something else.
Clear skies

"KC" schreef in bericht
news:QP6Kb.223005$8y1.908192@attbi_s52...
please forgive me that I know very little about astronomy or cosmology, my
questions are probably very stupid... but I am just curious.

anyway, I recently read an article which said that the WMAP measurements
indicated that the Universe is some 13.7 billion years old. do you know
how
did it derive that number? I mean, the measurements must be based on some
theories, and some basic assumptions, no? I wonder what those assumptions
are? and are they proven correct?

also, it said that it's measuring some background radiation which came
from
the time soon after the Big Bang. this doesn't make sense to me... if
it's
from the beginning of the universe, how could it just reach the WMAP
instrument now??? shouldn't anything that happened way way back already
passed and diappeared? how could it just reach us today??? I am really
confused.

I sent my questions to WMAP, but nobody cared to answer, they are probably
too busy and don't want to be bothered by this kind of naive questions.

finally, one more stupid question: how come all these astronomy sky maps
are
Oval shaped? I think it would be easier to understand if the map's in
3-D,
like a big beach ball or something, with the Solar system somewhere inside
the ball.

thanks in advance for your kind response.
-kc

Check the following link for info on the way the age of the universe is
calculated

http://www.chelt.ac.uk/gdn/origins/earth/age.htm

I believe WMAP is the first one. If you use a search engine on "calculate
the age of the universe" you should pick up other links.





"KC" wrote in
news:QP6Kb.223005$8y1.908192@attbi_s52:

please forgive me that I know very little about astronomy or
cosmology, my questions are probably very stupid... but I am just
curious.

anyway, I recently read an article which said that the WMAP
measurements indicated that the Universe is some 13.7 billion years
old. do you know how did it derive that number? I mean, the
measurements must be based on some theories, and some basic
assumptions, no? I wonder what those assumptions are? and are they
proven correct?

also, it said that it's measuring some background radiation which came
from the time soon after the Big Bang. this doesn't make sense to
me... if it's from the beginning of the universe, how could it just
reach the WMAP instrument now??? shouldn't anything that happened way
way back already passed and diappeared? how could it just reach us
today??? I am really confused.

I sent my questions to WMAP, but nobody cared to answer, they are
probably too busy and don't want to be bothered by this kind of naive
questions.

finally, one more stupid question: how come all these astronomy sky
maps are Oval shaped? I think it would be easier to understand if the
map's in 3-D, like a big beach ball or something, with the Solar
system somewhere inside the ball.

thanks in advance for your kind response.
-kc