The universe may be twice as old as previously believed

Astronomers from the University of Ottawa have developed a new model suggesting that the Big Bang occurred 26.7 billion years ago. If true, this would make the Universe nearly twice as old as previously thought.

Until now, scientists have estimated the age of the Universe by studying the oldest stars through the redshift of light emitted from distant galaxies. These observations indicated an age of 13.797 billion years. However, the existence of stars that appear even older, such as Methuselah, has puzzled many experts. According to some estimates, it could have formed 16 billion years ago.

The researchers have proposed revisiting the so-called "fundamental constants," which characterize the forces of interaction between particles. It is possible that these constants could have changed over time.

The new model allows for the formation of early galaxies, observed by the James Webb Space Telescope, to occur over a period ranging from several hundred million to several billion years.