Universe is Older than Previously Thought!

The Universe has added about 100 million years to its speculated age, but we're still not quite sure how old she really is. It's almost as if she's trying to keep it a secret! The age we think The Universe is now stands at 13.82 billion years old.

CREDIT: ESA and the Planck Collaboration

The Planck mission, which the Europeans are responsible for, produced an all new sky map of what they call "cosmic microwave background". This is the most detailed map of it's kind than any produced before it, and scientists are able to more clearly distinguish theories of how The Universe started. 

Currently, the evidence suggests that a theory that is named the "Standard Model" is being supported, although it is too early to confirm anything. The map is a fulmination of the Planck's images taken over the first 15 months of it launch. Some believe that as the satellite continues to travel, more will be revealed about how The Universe began, it's expansion rate, and what it looked like when the Big Bang was taking place.

This has the potential to be a very significant discovery for astronomy and human kind in general. The more we know about how everything in existence came into being, the more we will appreciate our lives, or at least that is the hope.