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Is the Universe 13.8 or 26.7 billion years old?
Our universe is actually 27 billion years old, almost double the current age estimate
According to the "Standard Model" of cosmology, the Universe is 68% dark energy, 27% dark matter, 5% normal matter, and is 13.8 billion years old: as measured since the hot Big Bang.
Recent observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), however, have found numerous galaxies that appear early, but look surprisingly grown-up. A new theory claims to solve this "early, grown-up galaxies" problem by changing the age of the Universe to 26.7 billion years old.
Astrophysicists are generally annoyed at the standard model. It's got too many fudges in it. Maybe this will make a new and more explanatory model be discovered and accepted.
Practically, nothing much will change except for astrophysicists being really excited for a while because this kind of thing is what science is all about.
One thing will change. There's a theory that one answer to the Fermi Paradox is that is because humans have appeared relatively early in the formation of the universe; we got an early sun, early solar system, life evolved rapidly... we can't hear anyone else because we're one of the firsts. If the age of the universe is double what we thought, this explanation becomes less probable, and the Fermi Paradox more concerning.
For those (like me) who was wondering what the Fermi Paradox was:
The Fermi paradox is the discrepancy between the lack of conclusive evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life and the apparently high likelihood of its existence. As a 2015 article put it, "If life is so easy, someone from somewhere must have come calling by now."
It's still a far shot away from 5000 years so I'll be fine.
+/- a couple billion years
This changes everything!!!
Think of the rate of decay!
Think of the motion!
Think of the odds of finding life!
Think of the light!
Think of time itself!
We were nothing before, but we are doubly nothing now, which is much worse!
Panic! Panic at the disco!
Much better to face these kinds of things with a sense of poise and rationality.
I guess finding a galaxy that is older than 13.8 billion years would lend credence to the hypothesis.
But yeah, there's definitely something wrong with cosmology.
Here's a good video about the topic from an astrophysicist. https://youtu.be/aBYgck1zAgQ
I seem to recall hearing recently about results that seemed to indicate that a certain galaxy is older than we'd expect.
Well they found a galaxy at 390 million years after the big bang, that according to current understanding should be billions of years old. That should do, I think?
Great YouTube channel thanks for sharing!
That estimate is based on assuming that the ratio of matter to light output is the same between galaxies 10 billion years apart in age. The high light output of these young galaxies could also be supermassive stars that burn out very quickly, larger stars typically forming faster than smaller stars, or many other things.
Blindly assuming a linear relationship between two things, then extrapolating is how you get the Windows loading bar circa 2000.
Separately, but just as big a potential issue, the data itself may be incorrect. Previous galaxies measured at extreme redshift values were remeasured, and found to have less extreme values. This can be as simple as there aren't that many photons from these galaxies reaching us, so a short measurement period might not be enough to get an accurate picture.
Considering that universes are best before 25 billion years I think it goes a long way towards explaining how disappointing humanity is.
by 13 billion
The age of our sun would be what would concern me the most. Personally