Comment on If the agreed upon age of the Universe is updated from 13 billion years old to 26 billion years old how does that affect Science and Astrophysics?

prime_number_314159@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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.

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