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Astronomers believe they have calculated the age of the cosmos more accurately than ever before.
For 8 years, Wendy L. Freedman of the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, Calif. and her colleagues have used the Hubble Space Telescope to measure the rate of expansion of the universe, a key factor in determinng the age, size, and fate of the cosmos. Depending on which of the two leading models of the cosmos her team invokes, the universe is estimated at either 12 billion years old or 13.5 billion years old. For decades, astronomers argued whether the universe was 10 billion or 20 billion years old, a difference so large that theories about the universe could not be proved right or wrong. Now, the estimated dates almost overlap within the uncertainties of the measurements. Regardless of which model is more accurate, both models hold that the universe will expand forever.