The universe is at least 13 billion years old, according to measurements from the Hubble space telescope orbiting the Earth.
The figure was given Wednesday by British scientists Simon Goodwin and John Gribbin at Sussex University.Scientists have been debating the age of the universe since the Big Bang theory postulated that it all started from a tiny point that exploded into the vast expanse of galaxies, stars and planets that exists today.
Measurements indicate that the explosion is still continuing, with the Earth and everything else still rushing away from this point.
Physicists and astronomers reckon that if they could measure the speed of this expansion, they could figure out how long ago it all started. Estimates now range from 10 billion to 15 billion years.
The paradox is that more accurate measurements do exist for the age of stars, and some are at least 12 billion years old.
Many of the measurements astronomers have based their data on are inaccurate because of the problems posed by peering through the Earth's atmosphere.
The Hubble telescope has changed that.
"It's only in the past year that the Hubble data have made it actually possible," Gribbin said in a telephone interview. "I'm pretty pleased."
Gribbin's team used a simple technique. How big a galaxy looks depends on how big it really is and how far away it is.
Very accurate measurements of actual distance have been made using stars known as Cepheids, which brighten and fade in a regular rhythm.
Gribbin's group calculated the average size of more than 3,000 galaxies and determined that the Milky Way galaxy, of which the Earth is a part, is pretty close to average.
"We were amazed when we found out how many galaxies there are now that have good diameter measures," he said.
How fast the galaxies are moving is easy to measure using the distortion of light known as a red shift.