2023-07-13 13:15:27
This is the conclusion reached in an investigation that will undoubtedly generate controversy. According to this study, the universe has an age of approximately 26.7 billion years, instead of the commonly accepted age of almost 13.8 billion. If the universe really is twice as old as we think, that could easily explain quite a few astrophysical questions for which there are no clear and convincing answers today.
The study was carried out by physicist Rajendra Gupta, a professor at the University of Ottawa in Canada.
For many years, astronomers and physicists have calculated the age of our universe by measuring the time since the Big Bang (the colossal “explosion” with which the universe was born) and studying the oldest stars, based on the redshift of light from distant galaxies. In 2021, thanks to new techniques and various technological advances, the age of our universe was calculated to be 13.797 million years.
However, many scientists have been puzzled by the existence of stars such as the one popularly known as “Methuselah’s star”, which appear to be older than the estimated age for our universe, and by the existence of very old galaxies but in an advanced state of evolution that have been discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope. Observed as they were only about 300 million years after the commonly accepted chronology of the Big Bang, these galaxies appear to have a level of maturity and mass typically associated with billions of years. of cosmic evolution.
Fritz Zwicky’s tired light theory proposes that the redshift of light from distant galaxies is due to the gradual loss of energy by photons over vast cosmic distances. Theory was shelved because it conflicted with observations. However, Gupta found that by allowing this theory to coexist with the concept of the expanding universe, it becomes possible to reinterpret redshift as a hybrid phenomenon, rather than purely expanding.
Panorama of the distant cosmos, in which scattered galaxies can be seen. (Photo: NASA / ESA / G. Illingworth / D. Magee / P. Oesch / University of California, Santa Cruz / R. Bouwens / Leiden University / HUDF09 Team)
In addition to Zwicky’s theory of tired light, Gupta introduces the idea of the evolution of “coupling constants”, hypothesized by Paul Dirac. Coupling constants are fundamental physical constants that govern the interactions between particles. According to Dirac, these constants could have varied over time. By allowing them to evolve, the time frame for the formation of the first galaxies observed by the Webb telescope at high redshifts can be extended from a few hundred million years to several billion years. This provides a more plausible explanation for the advanced level of development and mass observed in these very old galaxies.
A longer age for the universe would also solve the mystery of supermassive black holes in the supposed infancy of the universe. It would no longer be necessary to look for exotic explanations of how they were able to increase their mass from a stellar type so rapidly. They would simply have grown at the normal rate, slowly building up their mass over billions of years.
The study is titled “JWST early Universe observations and Lambda-CDM cosmology”. And it has been published in the academic journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS). (Source: NCYT from Amazings)
#universe