The physicist suggests that the universe may be twice as old as previously thought

The scientific community never gets tired of looking for new answers and trying to find solutions to issues not yet understood by humanity, in a wide variety of areas. And in the midst of ongoing studies, a discovery often ends up contradicting an earlier statement, so that many areas are filled with uncertainty.

One area of ​​science that most tries to answer unresolved questions is astronomyAfter all, if humanity doesn’t even have knowledge of everything that is in its oceans, how can it possibly know everything being? And recently, a Canadian physicist proposed something that greatly changes the current understanding of space.

This is because, today, the scientific community generally estimates the age of the universe to be approx 13.7 billion years. However, in a study published July 7 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical SocietyAssistant Professor, Faculty of Science, University of Ottawa, Canada. Rajendra Guptasuggesting that the universe would actually be twice as big: 26.7 billion years.

The estimated age of 13.7 billion years was calculated in 2021 by measuring the time elapsed since the great explosion Based on an analysis of ancient stars, and their redshift of light coming from distant galaxies. But the stars love MethuselahThe discovery of primordial galaxies in an advanced state of development has long intrigued the scientific community.

new ideas

In 1929, the Swiss astronomer worked Fritz Zwicky suggested calling Tired light theory, showing that the red light of distant galaxies comes from the gradual loss of energy by photons over vast distances. However, “by allowing this theory to co-exist with an expanding universe, it becomes possible to reinterpret the redshift as a hybrid phenomenon, and not just due to expansion,” according to advertisement in Gupta.

Moreover, the Canadian physicist also introduces in the article the idea of ​​”coupling constantsIn evolution, from the hypotheses of the Britons Paul Dirac, as described by Revista Galileo. These constants will be fundamental metrics that govern interactions between particles Diracmay have changed over time.

Therefore, because the value that was thought to be indisputably constant has varied throughout the history of the universe, the time frame for the formation of the first galaxies, with their high levels of redness, may extend even longer, which promotes the new theory that the universe may be twice as old as thought. .

finally, Gupta He points out in the article that the traditional interpretation of the cosmological constant is responsible for representing dark energy For the universe, which affects its accelerated expansion – needs to be revised, and a new constant is proposed that explains, in its place, the evolution of the coupling constants. This adjustment may, over time, help solve the puzzle of the small sizes of galaxies in the early universe.