Try It At Home: Cosmic Times
- By Barb Mattson
- February 22, 2012
- Comments Off on Try It At Home: Cosmic Times
Extra! Extra! Read All About the Universe!
The Universe is expanding faster and faster and faster! But, how do we know that? Our current knowledge of the Universe is built upon a foundation of research done by previous generations of scientists. Sometimes it seems that science moves slowly, but when you look back, it becomes clear just how far we have come in a short of time. (When you’re an astronomer, anything less than a few million years is very short!)
NASA’s Cosmic Times project takes a look at how our understanding of the Universe has changed from 1919, when astronomers believed the Universe was the size of our galaxy and infinitely old, to today, when astronomical evidence shows that the Universe is about 94 billion light years in size and about 14 billion years old. Cosmic Times traces these changes through a series of front-page newspapers from six different times over the past century.
Go find out how astronomers have come to their current understanding of the size, age, and nature of the Universe! What will we find out in the next 10 years?
Read the Cosmic Times articles online: http://cosmictimes.gsfc.nasa.gov/
