Friday, 1 February 2013

big bang theory - Is the time lapse considered when estimating the age of the universe?

As relativistic effects will cause clocks to run slower, a frame of reference must be chosen when considering the time of the "big bang". There is a natural and convenient choice of reference frame, based on the cosmic microwave background. The cosmic background appears to be extremely red-shifted light, indicating it is receding from us very fast, due to the expansion of the universe. If we choose a frame in which the CMB is receding equally fast in all directions, we have a convenient frame of reference. It is called the Comoving frame.



Now that we have a frame of reference, we can talk about time and distance in a way that all observers that share this frame can agree. In the comoving frame, the "big bang" occurred about 13.8 billion years ago.



To directly answer the question: The time measured is the time in the comoving frame and relativistic time dialations (time-lapse) are considered.

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