An extraordinary new study is challenging scientists’ fundamental understanding of the universe by suggesting it is almost twice as old as thought.

The universe has long been estimated to be around 14 billion years old, and in 2020 further research helped reach a consensus that it is 13.8 billion years old. New techniques deployed in 2021 narrowed this to 13.797 billion years. 

However, last year the James Webb Space Telescope discovered two galaxies that were older and more mature than thought possible, forming approximately 350 million and 450 million years after the Big Bang.

Speaking at the time, co-author Paola Santini said: ‘These observations just make your head explode. This is a whole new chapter in astronomy. It’s like an archaeological dig, and suddenly you find a lost city or something you didn’t know about. It’s just staggering.’

Co-author Pascal Oesch added: ‘While the distances of these early sources still need to be confirmed with spectroscopy, their extreme brightness is a real puzzle, challenging our understanding of galaxy formation.’

The findings have not just challenged galaxy formation, but that of the entire universe, with a new paper by Rajendra Gupta, adjunct professor of physics at the University of Ottawa, placing the age of the universe at 26.7 billion years.

A key factor in ageing the universe involves analysing the redshift of light from distant galaxies – as the universe expands and they move further away, light waves emitted by them become longer, meaning redder. 

Zwicky’s tired light theory proposes that this redshift is due to the gradual loss of energy by photons over vast cosmic distances, but this conflicted with current observations when proposing a universe that was 13.8 billion years old. 

However, Professor Gupta found that ‘by allowing this theory to coexist with the expanding universe, it becomes possible to reinterpret the redshift as a hybrid phenomenon, rather than purely due to expansion’.

In other words, if the universe is older than previously thought, there will have been sufficient time for the tired light theory to come into play.

A second theory, known as ‘coupling constants’, determines the strength of an interaction between particles. By accepting the hypothesis that these constants may actually vary, proposed by Paul Dirac, the two galaxies discovered by the JWST last year become less of a mystery – but are instead shown to be several billion years old. 

Professor Gupta argues this provides a more feasible explanation for their advanced level of development, offering a compelling solution to the so-called ‘early galaxy problem’.

The study is published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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