Maps of galaxies scattered across the Universe hold sound waves that seem to be frozen in time. These could hint at a Big Bang happening 13 billion years before what our current theories suggest.
Rajendra Gupta, a theoretical physicist from the University of Ottawa in Canada, made a groundbreaking proposal last year. He suggested that the Universe might be much older than we think. According to him, what we perceive as the Universe’s age could be an illusion created by light. This idea also helps us avoid the need to account for unseen forces.
Gupta’s recent analysis strengthens his theory. He found that the oscillations from the Universe’s infancy, captured in cosmic structures, back up his claims.
Gupta shared, “Our findings about the Universe being 26.7 billion years old challenge the current understanding. We’ve discovered that the Universe can exist without the need for dark matter.”
In the standard view of cosmology, dark energy is believed to drive the Universe’s accelerated expansion. However, Gupta argues that this expansion is actually due to the natural weakening of forces as the Universe grows, not because of dark energy.
If we reconsider the current models of the Universe’s expansion, we find that space wasn’t always as empty as it is now. About 13.7 billion years ago, all the material in the Universe could fit into a small space, much smaller than we can imagine today.
However, observations of what seem to be very young galaxies have thrown a wrench in the works. These galaxies appear too mature for their age, suggesting that the Universe might be older than we currently believe.
This presents a challenge for astronomers. They must decide whether to adjust the models for galaxy and black hole evolution or accept that the Universe might have been around much longer than previously thought.
Gupta questions the assumption that the forces affecting particle interactions have remained constant over time. He wonders how changes in these forces over long periods could impact the expansion of space.
Introducing new theories to the scientific community is always tough. Gupta’s idea, which revisits a concept dismissed nearly a century ago, faces this challenge head-on.
In the 1920s, Swiss physicist Fritz Zwicky speculated that the red light from distant objects might be due to energy loss over vast distances, a theory known as “tired light.”
Gupta’s theory, which combines changing forces and the tired light hypothesis, proposes a different explanation for the Universe’s expansion. It suggests that the stretching of space is due to changes in known particle interactions, not mysterious forces like dark energy.
To support his theory, Gupta points to how it can explain the distribution of visible matter and the cosmic microwave background’s glow, remnants of the Universe’s early sound waves and light.
His analysis concludes that this new theory could work with certain aspects of the Universe’s early signals, but only if we also dismiss the need for dark matter.
Eliminating the need to explain dark matter and dark energy would simplify physics in some ways. However, whether Gupta’s theory can revolutionize cosmology depends on its ability to address more issues than it raises.
For the moment, the Universe is still considered to be 13.7 billion years old, despite the intriguing mysteries it holds.
This research was shared in The Astrophysical Journal.