Why is astronomy an old science?

Answer 1

An age of about 13.7 billion years (13.7 x 109 years) is a good estimate for the age of the universe. Set aside the uncertainty and consider that a year has 365 days, a day has 24 hours, an hour has 60 minutes and a minute has 60 seconds and the answer becomes a problem of simple calculation.

13.7 billion years x 365 days = 5.0 trillion days.

5.0 trillion days x 24 hours = 120 trillion hours.

120 trillion hours x 60 minutes = 7.2 quadrillion minutes

7.2 quadrillion minutes x 60 seconds = 432 quadrillion seconds.

Or, roughly 432,329,886,000,000,000 seconds, to 9 significant figures.

These kind of questions are unanswerable, and all answers become futile and inconsequent. Dimension or idea of time and space are separated from life and non-living things.

Firstly, the big bang theory is exactly this : a theory, at least at this moment.

It is the same thing as to ask : When the Universe shall disappear ? To set an estimated time is necessary to set a beginning. Therefore, it is impossible to give any kind of estimating age for anything that you don't know how and when it started.

Just a comment on the mathematics: If you are going to give the answer to 9 significant figures, then the number of days in a year ought to be to more than three significant figures. For example 365.25 would be slightly more accurate. But given the age is estimated it doesn't seem worth going to too many significant figures anyway. Having done my own calculations (based on a figure of 13.75 billion years) I came to an answer of 434 million billion seconds. When I searched answers.com to check my calculations I was pleased to find the answer quoted above is nearly the same.

Answer 2

The dawn of astronomy was in ancient Africa where the stars guided travelers and heralded seasons of the year. Astronomy was critical to agriculture. The Ancient Egyptians Temples and mythology is all about Astronomy. See Dawn of Astronomy by J. Norman Lockyer.

Answer 3

Under current assumptions about the state of the universe today and in the past, astronomers estimate the age of the universe as about 13.8 billion years. Its creation is theorized to have been an expanding eruption of energy called the Big Bang. Our own Sun is one of a generation of stars (called Population I stars) formed since then, and is about 4.57 billion years old.

Answer 4

Astronomy really began when the first humans looked up at the night sky and observed what was there. In other words, astronomy has been around for as long as we know. We cannot put a start date or time, or say who was the first person to be an astronomer. If you look at the night sky, you are doing basic astronomy.

Answer 5

The study of Astronomy began on some clear night, a few feet outside the mouth of
some cave, when the first human who was not under attack at the moment and had
a brain big enough to accommodate curiosity looked up at the sky and wondered.
Since he chose not to publish his observations, we don't know where that was.

Answer 6

We believe that the "universe" we experience is about 14.5 billion years old. That assumes a LOT; that the fundamental physical principles that we have figured out in the here-and-now also applied in the there-and-way-back-when, that fundamental constants like the speed of light and the planck constant haven't changed, and dozens of other things. (For all we know, God really did take six days to create the universe 6000 years ago and just created an "old" universe to throw us off track.)

We have no information (at best, some vague speculations) about what might have come "before", or what will happen when the universe we can detect will "end". Or even if the concepts of "before" and "end" have any meaning in this context.

Answer 7

Astronomy is the oldest science for our ancients either drew or made structures according to seasons or movements of celestial bodies in our Universe. An excellent example is Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England has been dated to 3100 B.C.E. in which one of the functions is to show when the solstices occurs (Summer and Winter).

Answer 8

They believe that taoism existed even before the universe was formed. they believe that it continues to guide the world and everything in it, and is ofter identified as the mother and source of all things.

Answer 9

Great Question!

People have observed the heavens for millenia, so there's no question as to the fact that we are a little weird when it comes to outer space and science. But the main reason (and this is only personal opinion) that astronomy came before the physics of kinematics (or any thing else) is because there was something wrong with it to begin with that just annoyed people until they had to fix it. That is to say that the planets behaved wrong according the existing model (geo-centricity) in fact that is the origin of the word planet - the wandering ones. instead, coppernicus had to develop the theory of helio-centricity which actually worked! then came kinematics which, to be perfectly honest, was just a giant accident. Galileo Galilei is, of course, very famous for his work with kinematics, but the only reason he discovered anything was because he saw something (ie. that a pendulum swings the same number of times per minute no matter it's mass, or the height from which the pendulum is released) based on very random everyday events (ie. from a swinging candle lantern during church).

Answer 10

The universe is about 13.5 to 14 billion years old, from the Big Bang to the present. The half billion year uncertainty allows for a number of different methods of measurement to all fall "within it" and be in agreement. Certainly there may be some other estimates of the age of the universe, but this is a scientific one. It is almost universally accepted by scientists today.

Answer2: The Universe is around 16 Billion Years old.