When Did Time Begin?

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar

I forget, how long is a year on Pluto in earth years?

247.7 Earth years


Our clock and our perception of time are both created by man, but I don't think the question in the thread title was "Does Time Exist?".

If we think that time began with the Big Bang (I don't), Some scientists estimate that happened at least 12 billion years ago. Really scientists are still trying to figure out the age f the Universe. Who knows when time began. If Time has a beginning then I guess it must have an end.

These kind of things confuse me and I am probably in way over my head but...

If we see things that are over 60 billion light years away, and the Big Bang only happened 12 billion years ago, and the fastest speed is the speed of light....then how is the universe over 60 billion light years long if the big bang only happened 12 billion years ago. I don't know, but in my mind it seems the universe could only be 12 billion light years long, or extend 12 billion light years in every direction, and that's considering that it expanded at the speed of light.. Wouldn't the universe have to be way older?

Just my thought

[edit on 9-3-2005 by Omniscient]

I think you guys have way too much free time, , if such a thing exists technically...

Omniscient, you are right, if we see things that are over 60 billion light years away then the Universe would have to be way older than 12 billion light years.
From my knowledge the visible Universe only spans 15 billion light years.
The scientists who have calculated that the Universe is 12 billion years old, arrived to that number by observing the expansion of the Universe. To make up the difference of the 3 billion years, I would have to guess that they figure that at one time the Universe was expanding faster than the speed of light. This would be possible since the big bang would of produces such amounts of energy. Think E=mc2, multiply the mass you have by the speed of light, squared. If before the Big Bang there was just a singularity of mass, then the big bang would of produced an amazing amount of energy. The mass would of had to be traveling twice the speed of light to form that energy.
My head hurts now, I'm going back to bed .