Age Estimates of Globular Clusters in the Milky Way: Constraints on Cosmology

2003/01/02 by Lawrence M. Krauss, Brian Chaboyer · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies

paper · doi:10.1126/science.1075631

openalex publication_date 2003/01/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Abstract

Recent observations of stellar globular clusters in the Milky Way Galaxy, combined with revised ranges of parameters in stellar evolution codes and new estimates of the earliest epoch of globular cluster formation, result in a 95% confidence level lower limit on the age of the Universe of 11.2 billion years. This age is inconsistent with the expansion age for a flat Universe for the currently allowed range of the Hubble constant, unless the cosmic equation of state is dominated by a component that violates the strong energy condition. This means that the three fundamental observables in cosmology-the age of the Universe, the distance-redshift relation, and the geometry of the Universe-now independently support the case for a dark energy-dominated Universe.

Citations

• Measurement of stellar age from uranium decay
• Measurements of Ω and Λ from 42 High‐Redshift Supernovae
• Multiple Peaks in the Angular Power Spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background: Significance and Consequences for Cosmology
• The cosmological density of baryons from observations of 3He+ in the Milky Way
• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis Predictions for Precision Cosmology
• Final Results from theHubble Space TelescopeKey Project to Measure the Hubble Constant

Cited by

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• Main sequence [wikipedia]