(PARIS) -- The universe is older than it looks. The European
Space Agency’s Planck space telescope has revealed that the
universe is around 13.8 billion years old or about 100 million
years older than scientists previously believed. As they snoop
around for clues to the genesis of the Big Bang, scientists have
used the Planck to create a multicolored map that will help
determine what the universe might look like in the future.
Compared to NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP)
and the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), the new telescope is
like an upgrade from "a standard television to a high-definition
television." With the map, scientists have found increases in
normal and dark matter while dark energy, which encompasses
about seven-tenths of the universe, has actually shrunk a bit.
This is good news if you're worried about the universe expanding
just a little too much for comfort. Copyright 2013 ABC News
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