How old is the universe exactly? A new theory suggests that it’s been around for twice as long as believed

Early universe observations by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can’t be defined by present cosmological fashions. These fashions estimate the universe to be 13.8 billion years in age, based mostly on the big-bang expanding universe concept.

My analysis proposes a mannequin that determines the universe’s age to be 26.7 billion years, which accounts for the JWST’s “impossible early galaxy” observations.

Unimaginable early galaxies check with the truth that some galaxies courting to the cosmic daybreak—500 to 800 million years after the massive bang—have disks and bulges just like these which have handed by way of a protracted interval of evolution. And smaller in measurement galaxies are apparently more massive than larger ones, which is sort of the other of expectation.

Frequency and distance

This age estimate is derived from the universe’s enlargement fee by measuring the redshift of spectral strains within the mild emitted by distant galaxies. An earlier clarification of the redshift was based mostly on the speculation that mild loses power because it travels cosmic distances. This “tired light” explanation was rejected because it couldn’t clarify many observations.

The redshift of sunshine is just like the Doppler effect on sound: noises seem to have greater frequency (pitch) when approaching, and decrease when receding. Redshift, a decrease mild frequency, signifies when an object is receding from us; the bigger the galaxy distance, the upper the recessional velocity and redshift.

Another clarification for the redshift was because of the Doppler impact: Distant galaxies are receding from us at speeds proportional to their distance, indicating that the universe is increasing. The increasing universe mannequin grew to become favored by most astronomers after two astronomers working for Bell Labs, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, accidentally discovered cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation in 1964, which the steady-state mannequin couldn’t satisfactorily clarify.

The speed of enlargement basically determines the age of the universe. Till the launch of the Hubble House Telescope within the Nineties, uncertainty within the enlargement fee estimated the universe’s age starting from seven to twenty billion years. Different observations led to the presently accepted worth of 13.8 billion years, placing the big-bang mannequin on the cosmology pedestal.

Limitations of earlier fashions

Analysis revealed final yr proposed to resolve the impossible early galaxy problem using the tired light model. Nonetheless, drained mild can not satisfactorily clarify different cosmological observations like supernovae redshifts and uniformity of the cosmic microwave background.

I tried to mix the usual big-bang mannequin with the drained mild mannequin to see the way it suits the supernovae knowledge and the JWST knowledge, however it didn’t match the latter properly. It did, nonetheless, improve the universe’s age to 19.3 billion years.

Subsequent, I attempted making a hybrid mannequin comprising the drained mild and a cosmological mannequin I had developed based mostly on the evolving coupling constants proposed by British physicist Paul Dirac in 1937. This fitted each the info properly, however virtually doubled the universe’s age.

The brand new mannequin stretches galaxy formation time 10 to twenty fold over the usual mannequin, giving sufficient time for the formation of well-evolved “inconceivable” early galaxies as noticed.

As with all mannequin, it might want to present a passable clarification for all these observations which can be happy by the usual cosmological mannequin.

Mixing fashions

The strategy of blending two fashions to clarify new observations just isn’t new. Isaac Newton thought of that mild propagates as particles in his concept of sunshine, which prevailed till it was changed by the wave concept of sunshine within the nineteenth century to clarify diffraction patterns noticed with monochromatic mild.

Albert Einstein resurrected the particle-like nature of sunshine to clarify the photoelectric impact—that mild has twin traits: particle-like in some observations and wave-like in others. It has since change into well-established that every one particles have such twin traits.

One other manner of measuring the age of the universe is to estimate the age of stars in globular clusters in our personal galaxy—the Milky Way. Globular clusters embrace as much as 1,000,000 stars, all of which seem to have shaped on the similar time within the early universe.

Assuming all galaxies and clusters began to kind concurrently, the age of the oldest star within the cluster ought to present the age of the universe (much less the time when the galaxies started to kind). For some stars reminiscent of Methuselah, believed to be oldest within the galaxy, astrophysical modeling yields an age greater than the age of the universe determined using the standard model, which is inconceivable.

Einstein believed that the universe is identical noticed from any level at any time—homogeneous, isotropic and timeless. To clarify the noticed redshift of distant galaxies in such a steady-state universe, which appeared to extend in proportion to their distance (Hubble’s regulation), Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky, proposed the tired light theory in 1929.

New info

Whereas some Hubble House Telescope observations did level in direction of the inconceivable early galaxy downside, it was not till the launch of JWST in December 2021, and the info it offered since mid-2022, that this downside was firmly established.

To defend the usual big-bang mannequin, astronomers have tried to resolve the issue by compressing the timeline for forming massive stars and primordial black holes accreting mass at unphysically high rates.

Nonetheless, a consensus is creating in direction of new physics to clarify these JWST observations.

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