BOZEMAN, Mont., May 28 (UPI) -- U.S. astronomers said the universe is at least 156 billion light-years wide, BBC News Online reported.
The estimate comes from data obtained by a space probe that is examining the cosmic background radiation -- also known as the echo of the Big Bang. The echo contains information of what the cosmos was like when it was young and how it might develop.
The cosmos is 13.7 billion years old, but the stretching of space with its expansion after the Big Bang means simple distance measurements do not apply.
The age estimate comes from two independent lines of investigation -- the age of stars and the expansion of the universe. This means radiation reaching Earth from the earliest universe has been travelling for more than 13 billion years. But the assumption that the radius of the universe is therefore 13.7 billion light-years and its diameter is 27.4 billion light-years does not follow.
Astronomers at Montana State University explained that the universe is more complex -- it has been expanding ever since the Big Bang when energy, space and time began and space itself began expanding.
