Recently read the CNN article that says our telescopes are looking back in time to the oldest galaxy thus far: 13.23 billion light-years from Earth. Does something seem completely illogical when compared to the experts' guess that the big bang occured some 13.7 billion years ago? Does it not make sense that if a big bang had occured, it would have been much older that just 13.7 billion years? The article:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/03/01/farthest.galaxy.ap/index.html

Rex

If it's 13.2 billion light years from us, it must of been traveling away from us at nearly the speed of light if the universe is 13.7 years old.

If it's 13.2 billion light years from us, it must of been traveling away from us at nearly the speed of light if the universe is 13.7 years old.

yea, that`s the current view...
Last year, humanity learned that the universe is 13.7 billion years old. Before this year, the universe's age was thought to be <b>about</b> 13 billion years, but really only constrained to be between about 12 billion and 15 billion years old. The difference was made, primarily, by a small satellite named the <i>Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe</i> (<b>WMAP</b>) that had been collecting data in an unusual Earth orbit.

The complete cosmic microwave background , in detail never before resolved, was recorded by the WMAP's first data sample. Besides universe age, new data and analyses of the spots on the cosmic microwave background bolstered existing indications that the universe is composed predominantly of a strange and mysterious type of <b>dark energy </b>(73 percent).
The remaining matter is only about 4 percent in familiar atoms, with the remaining 23 percent in a somewhat mysterious type of <b>dark matter</b>.

During that year, much cosmological research shifted from trying to find the parameters that define our universe to trying to use these parameters as a tool for understanding details of how our universe evolved.
;)

Thanks for the clarification, Jaredster. It actually does make easy sense now... just needed to momentarily seperate light years of time to that of distance to understand. As for the dark energy/matter, interesting stuff. I suppose there's much we can learn from the dark matter emitting from our own galaxy (perpendicular to its disk shape from what I remember reading a few years ago).