29.4 The cosmic microwave background  (Page 7/10)

Key numbers from an analysis of the Planck data give us the best values currently available for some of the basic properties of the universe:

• Age of universe: 13.799 ± 0.038 billion years (Note: That means we know the age of the universe to within 38 million years. Amazing!)
• Hubble constant: 67.31 ± 0.96 kilometers/second/million parsecs
• Fraction of universe’s content that is “dark energy”: 68.5% ± 1.3%
• Fraction of the universe’s content that is matter: 31.5% ± 1.3%

Note that this value for the Hubble constant    is slightly smaller than the value of 70 kilometers/second/million parsecs that we have adopted in this book. In fact, the value derived from measurements of redshifts is 73 kilometers/second/million parsecs. So precise is modern cosmology these days that scientists are working hard to resolve this discrepancy. The fact that the difference between these two independent measurements is so small is actually a remarkable achievement. Only a few decades ago, astronomers were arguing about whether the Hubble constant was around 50 kilometers/second/million parsecs or 100 kilometers/second/million parsecs.

Analysis of Planck data also shows that ordinary matter (mainly protons and neutrons) makes up 4.9% of the total density. Dark matter plus normal matter add up to 31.5% of the total density. Dark energy contributes the remaining 68.5%. The age of the universe at decoupling—that is, when the CMB was emitted—was 380,000 years.

Perhaps the most surprising result from the high-precision measurements by WMAP and the even higher-precision measurements from Planck is that there were no surprises. The model of cosmology with ordinary matter at about 5%, dark matter at about 25%, and dark energy about 70% has survived since the late 1990s when cosmologists were forced in that direction by the supernovae data. In other words, the very strange universe that we have been describing, with only about 5% of its contents being made up of the kinds of matter we are familiar with here on Earth, really seems to be the universe we live in.

After the CMB was emitted, the universe continued to expand and cool off. By 400 to 500 million years after the Big Bang, the very first stars and galaxies had already formed. Deep in the interiors of stars, matter was reheated, nuclear reactions were ignited, and the more gradual synthesis of the heavier elements that we have discussed throughout this book began.

We conclude this quick tour of our model of the early universe with a reminder. You must not think of the Big Bang as a localized explosion in space , like an exploding superstar. There were no boundaries and there was no single site where the explosion happened. It was an explosion of space (and time and matter and energy) that happened everywhere in the universe. All matter and energy that exist today, including the particles of which you are made, came from the Big Bang. We were, and still are, in the midst of a Big Bang; it is all around us.

Key concepts and summary

When the universe became cool enough to form neutral hydrogen atoms, the universe became transparent to radiation. Scientists have detected the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation from this time during the hot, early universe. Measurements with the COBE satellite show that the CMB acts like a blackbody with a temperature of 2.73 K. Tiny fluctuations in the CMB show us the seeds of large-scale structures in the universe. Detailed measurements of these fluctuations show that we live in a critical-density universe and that the critical density is composed of 31% matter, including dark matter, and 69% dark energy. Ordinary matter—the kinds of elementary particles we find on Earth—make up only about 5% of the critical density. CMB measurements also indicate that the universe is 13.8 billion years old.