This is not the first time that estimates have changed. Less than a hundred years ago, astronomers believed that the entire space around us was formed only 2 billion years ago.
According to the most accurate estimates, the universe is 13.7 billion years old. But such a long time is very difficult to imagine, because if all of history were anchored in one Earth year – with a big bang as the biggest New Year’s fireworks ever set off – the Earth would appear in about mid-September. What’s more, all of recorded human history would have taken place in the last ten seconds of December 31st, which only adds to the age of the universe given the amount of events in history. But what if the entire space around us was even older than scientists calculated by observing starlight?
Related: Do you know how old the oldest galaxy in the universe is?
Indeed, according to a study by scientists from the University of Ottawa, it appears that the universe may be twice as old as we previously thought, around 26.7 billion years to be exact. Rajendra Gupta, a physics professor at the university, incorporates a 1929 theory from Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky into the calculations. This theory states that photons “get tired” as they travel vast distances, losing energy over billions of years. Therefore, if the age of the universe is calculated on the basis of the so-called redshift – the lengthening of the wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation of stars that were formed only a few hundred million years after the big bang – it does not have to be a constant quantity.
Gupta in his study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, talks about reinterpreting the redshift as a hybrid phenomenon, rather than an effect caused solely by the expansion of the universe. This would then correspond, for example, to observations of the oldest known star – aptly named Methuselah – which appears to be older than the entire universe in some as yet unexplained way. According to current theories, this is impossible, so it is either a mistake, or the scientists are coming across the aforementioned consideration of a much older age of the universe. But new data from the James Webb Space Telescope also revealed other anomalies, such as at least six galaxies too massive to form in the allotted time of the universe’s existence.
As a result, this too could indicate that the universe is, in short, older, which would ultimately correspond to earlier revisions of these considerations and measurements. Already in the 20s of the last century, Edwin Hubble thought about only 2 billion years of age, but then scientists’ calculations became more accurate, and there is no reason why this should not continue.
Source: Popular Mechanics, Royal Astronomical Society
2023-08-27 04:00:00
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