An approximate age for the universe can be deduced from?

Answer 1

Based on the mathematical calculations of Robert H. Dicke, Jim Peebles, and David Wilkinson (astrophysicists at Princeton University), if there had been a "big bang" explosion that created the universe, we ought to be able to detect reflected energy - sort of like "echoes" of the big bang - isotropically, or "from everywhere equally", around the cosmos. We also ought to be able to calculate the time since then by measuring the frequency of that reflected energy.

In 1964, two scientists named Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson were trying to determine the cause of some background "static" noise in AT&T's microwave communications antennas. The background noise seemed to be isotropic, coming from every direction in space equally.

When they all got together, they realized that Penzias and Wilson had discovered the exact sort of background radiation that Dicke, Peebles and Wilkinson had predicted - and that, further, the background radiation was the right frequency to date the "big bang" at about 14.5 billion years ago. Penzias and Wilson shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978.

Answer 2

The approximate age of the universe can be deduced from various observations, such as the cosmic microwave background radiation and the rate of expansion of the universe measured by observing distant galaxies. These measurements suggest the universe is about 13.8 billion years old.