Is the universe twice as old? A new model stirs debate

A new model is challenging one of cosmology's most established numbers: the age of the universe. Rajendra Gupta, a physics professor at the University of Ottawa, and postdoctoral researcher Nikolaos Samaras spent much of the past two years testing their framework, called CCC+TL, against major astronomical observations. According to the report, the model calculates the universe's age at 26.7 billion years, nearly twice the commonly accepted estimate.

The most striking part is that the model does without dark matter and dark energy. Instead, it proposes that physical constants slowly shift over time and that light loses energy as it travels through space. That second assumption means distant light took far longer to reach us, which stretches the universe's estimated age. In computer simulations, the team says the model accurately predicted the abundance of hydrogen and helium created in the Big Bang and matched the universe's historical expansion rate.

According to the paper, the model can also explain how stars and gas orbit in 175 galaxies, a phenomenon long seen as one of the strongest arguments for dark matter. Gupta says the framework may also address a puzzle raised by the James Webb Space Telescope, which has found galaxies that look too big and developed for how early they appear: if the universe is older, those galaxies simply had more time to grow.

Still, the idea remains well outside the mainstream. Some of the team's work is under review, and the standard model continues to explain a wide range of observations. According to the report, other scientists will need to test the findings independently, and upcoming Webb observations searching for even more distant galaxies could help settle the question.