2023-07-15 10:32:34
The current consensus is that the universe has experienced continuous expansion from a Big Bang that occurred 13.7 billion years ago. But a rather groundbreaking new study suggests that our universe might be twice as old, challenging the dominant cosmological model while reconciling the enigmatic ‘problem of impossible early galaxies’.
Header image: the last map of a dynamic universe obtained by the space telescope ROSITE. (Jeremy Sander/ Hermann Brunner & the eSASS team/ Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics/ Eugene Churazov & Marat Gilfanov/ IKI)
For years, scientists have been puzzled by the existence of ancient stars, which appear to predate the calculated age of our universe. Furthermore, the recent discovery of primitive galaxies in an advanced state of evolution by the télescope spatial James Webb posed a baffling riddle.
These galaxies, which appeared barely 300 million years following the Big Bang, exhibit levels of maturity and mass typically associated with billions of years of cosmic evolution. Curiously, they also feature surprisingly small sizes, which adds another layer of mystery to the equation.
In the depths of the Universe, the James Webb Space Telescope spots galaxies “excessively massive” for their time
For Rajendra Gupta, assistant professor of physics at the University of Ottawa, Canada, these puzzling observations can be explained by the fact that our universe is actually much older than previously thought.
Gupta’s study presents a new model that extends the formation time of galaxies by billions of years, which explains the apparent discrepancy between the observed age of some stars and the estimated age of the universe.
The major stages in the evolution of the Universe. (NAOJ)
This model incorporates the theory of tired light of Fritz Zwickywhich suggests that the redshift observed in the light of distant galaxies is the result of a gradual loss of energy over large cosmic distances. According to Zwicky, light gets “tired” simply by traveling great distances in the cosmos. This contrasts sharply with the currently established theory that the redshift observed in distant celestial objects, such as galaxies, is mainly due to their distance from us, a consequence of the expansion of the universe in all directions.
However, the Swiss astronomer’s fatigued light theory has been the subject of significant controversy within the scientific community. One of the main issues was that the fatigued light not only caused a red shift, but also a significant decrease in the intensity or brightness of the light. Critics have argued that if light loses energy over cosmic distances, the observed brightness of distant objects would be much dimmer than that observed in reality.
The position and color of 200,000 galaxies, from here to the far reaches ofobservable universeresulting from the survey program of celestial objects, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
Although Zwicky’s theory initially contradicts observations, Gupta offers a new perspective. By allowing tired light theory to coexist with the expanding universe, the redshift phenomenon can be reinterpreted as a hybrid phenomenon, combining both expansion and energy loss, Gupta says. This new interpretation offers a plausible explanation for the observations of the first galaxies.
Besides the fatigued light theory, Gupta introduces the concept of ” coupling constants evolutionary solutions proposed by the physicist Paul Dirac. Coupling constants are fundamental physical constants that govern interactions between particles, and Dirac suggested that they might vary over time.
By taking into account the evolution of these constants, Gupta’s model extends the period of formation of the first galaxies observed by the télescope spatial James Webb. Instead of a few hundred million years, this revised framework predicts several billion years of cosmic evolution, offering a more satisfying explanation for the advanced development and mass of these ancient galaxies.
Gupta’s model also challenges the traditional interpretation of the “cosmological constant”, which represents thedark energy causing the accelerating expansion of the universe. It proposes instead a modified constant which accounts for the evolution of the coupling constants.
This adjustment of the cosmological model might help solve the puzzle of the small sizes of galaxies observed in the early universe, which would allow obtaining more precise observations and better understanding of cosmic evolution.
Although Gupta’s model departs radically from the prevailing cosmological framework, it presents compelling arguments that warrant closer examination.
By marrying the expanding universe theory with Zwicky’s fatigued light hypothesis and incorporating evolutionary coupling constants, Gupta offers an intriguing solution to the mysteries surrounding early galaxies and the age of our universe.
The study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: JWST early Universe observations and ΛCDM cosmology and presented on the University of Ottawa website: Reinventing cosmology: uOttawa research puts age of universe at 26.7 — not 13.7 — billion years.
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