The James Webb Space Telescope JWST is the most advanced window that humanity has for looking at the cosmos, and it has provided stunning images and data since it was launched. However, in the last few months, something utterly baffling, yet potentially revolutionary, has come to light. The JWST has discovered galaxies appearing older than the universe itself, or at least older than the widely accepted age of the universe. It has left the scientists bewildered, and new questions arise related to everything we understand's beginning.
Timeline of the Universe, Thus Far
For nearly a century, the Big Bang theory has been cosmology's firm standing foundation. The universe itself began around 13.8 billion years ago as a singularity - basically, a point of infinite density had just exploded outward, creating time, space, matter, and energy. It has been expanding ever since the Big Bang, forming galaxies several hundred million years after the early cosmos cool and matter coalesced into stars and galaxies.
But the newly sighted evidence of JWST somehow contradicts this well-entrenched storyline. This telescope has now been able to catch sites of galaxies that, according to light coming from them, seem to have existed for more than 13.8 billion years thus predating the Big Bang that is supposed to have occurred.
The Mystical Galaxies
Watching over some of the farthest reaches of space, the JWST found that light was coming from several galaxies that seemed too old and too evolved for the early universe. These galaxies contain mature structures such as complete spiral arms and large central bulges that imply they existed long before they should have been able to form. Even stranger, light from these galaxies has been redshifted, stretched out due to the expansion of the universe; this means that it had to originate at a time when the Big Bang was simply a memory.
To put it simply, the light from those galaxies has reached us so long ago that it's coming from before the universe is ever believed to have been. This has led some scientists to believe that we are mistaken in our understanding of how the universe came about.
"It's the Same Universe Again" - A Cosmic Rebirth?
It is one of the most provocative theories that come with this discovery-the possibility that the universe doesn't actually have an ultimate beginning in the first place. Some cosmologists are now coming up with the idea that we are actually living in a cyclic universe; that is, a cosmos that periodically expands and contracts, having the ability of being reborn in cycles, rather than having unfolded once from a Big Bang.
If the universe undergoes these cosmic cycles, then the galaxies seen by JWST could be leftovers from some earlier incarnation of the universe. In that case the universe expands, expands to its maximum volume, and then contracts into a "bounce" back into expansion. The Big Bang we talk about might just be the start of this latest cycle, and the galaxies JWST saw may be "leftovers" from some earlier cosmic era.
Though not a new theory, the Big Bounce concept has been discussed for decades. It assumes that perhaps the beginning of the universe could just have been the end of a previous universe. However, this was more of speculation with little evidence until now.
Dark Matter or Unknown Physics?
Another theory under research is that these galaxies do not exist in another universe cycle, but instead are formed by parts of the universe that we haven't learned enough about yet. A few physicists suggest that dark matter-a hypothetical material that constitutes 85 percent of the universe's matter-may be associated with these unusual galaxies. These galaxies may have formed much earlier than we could have thought was even possible, possibly even before the universe as we know it arose, through clumping dark matter.
Or maybe a harbinger of the fact that our
comprehension of the laws of physics is yet to be exhaustive. Had there existed
certain types of matter, or as of yet unknown forces in the universe at those
early times, such would have potentially allowed galaxies to nucleate earlier
than we now forecast.
This would then speak to an entirely new physics in quantum mechanics and the intermediate forces outside of what we have at this time in the Standard Model given us for the description of cosmology.
The Scientific Controversy
As might be expected, there is a lot of intense debate in the scientific community about this discovery. Some scientists are cautioning a very careful approach and are of the opinion that this observation can be interpreted differently because of poor data or instrumentation. Others are more optimistic; they feel that these observations mark a historic moment in cosmology.
We're seeing galaxies that shouldn't be there," said one astronomer involved with the JWST project. "If these results hold up, we'll have to reconsider our entire understanding of the universe. It's not just a question of what happened after the Big Bang, but whether the Big Bang was the beginning at all."
New Understanding in Regards to Time and Space?
It has significant implications ranging from galaxies and onward to the whole universe. If the universe does experience cycles then, it means that after expansion the universe goes through contraction in limitless cycles, making us question our definition of time. A "beginning" could, therefore, just be a human convention that we ascribe rather more than in reality might be. Maybe time is just infinite continua without an absolute starting point but is instead one endless continuum. The "Big Bang" might just be a transition phase of such a bigger, eternal universe.
Another theory is that the sense of time changes when extreme conditions are present, and that our experience within this cosmic age makes us unable to perceive it.
What's Next?
Scientists are now running to gather more data to either confirm or refute these ancient galaxies. If they are as old as it seems, the discovery by JWST could completely reshuffle how we understand the universe's past and future.
For the time being, these results only make us raise more questions than answers. Are they galaxies from the previous cycle of the universe? Or do they manifest some exotically unknown process operating in the very early universe? Any case, one thing is pretty evident to me: this probe will take what was a very strange and complex universe from our collective imagination.
In any case, the James Webb Space Telescope demonstrated once more that the universe holds surprises for us, and maybe the dawn of a new century of discovery is just ahead.
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