James Webb May Soon Disprove The Big Bang Theory And Prove The Universe Is Much Older, Possibly Trillions Of Years
The BIG BANG theory may soon be dismissed as per the James Webb Space Telescope affiliated to NASA. Let's dive into this.
Physicist Eric J. Lerner comes to the point:
For anyone who looks at them, the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) images of the universe are exquisitely splendid. To many of the professional astronomers and cosmologists, they are also very shocking — very unexpected based on theory.
In the torrent of technical papers posted on-line since July 12, the authors consistently reiterate their observations stating that the images contain an astonishing number of galaxies, galaxies that are striking in their smoothness, smallness and age. Many shocks, and they're not all good shocks. One paper's title begins with the candid exclamation: The act is called 'Panic!'
What is it about the JWST's images that causes panic among cosmologists? Which of the theories' predictions are they negating? The papers don't read that.
What is being left unsaid by these papers is that the images that JWST is providing are flat out and over and over contradicting the Big Bang Hypothesis of the universe 14 billion years old and, at the same time, expanding. Since that hypothesis has been argued for decades as irrefutable fact by 95% of cosmological theorists, it is making these theorists shake in their boots. 'Right now I find myself lying awake at three in the morning'. – an astronomer at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Alison Kirkpatrick – …wondering if everything I've done is wrong. ’ ERIC J. LERNER, ‘THE BIG BANG DIDN’T HAPPEN’ AT IAI. TV (AUGUST 11, 2022)
While we did not often hear of it, there has been dissatisfaction with the Standard Model which starts with the Big Bang, ever since the latter was proposed almost a century ago by Georges Lemaître. However, nobody thought that the James Webb Space Telescope would play a part in this discourse.
An Interested Party
Now, Lerner is the author of The Big Bang Never Happened (1992) and as such, he has a dog in the fight, but that doesn't mean he is wrong. He will be performing at howthelightgetsin festival in London (17-18 September, 2022), organized by the Institute for Art and Ideas aka IAI as one of the speakers during the Cosmology and the Big Bust debate.
The upcoming debate, which features philosopher of science Bjørn Ekeberg and Yale astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan, along with Lerner, is premised as follows: follows:
The Big Bang theory stands on the 'inflation' hypothesis which states that in the beginning at least many orders of magnitude faster than the velocity of light the universe expanded. Nevertheless, attempts to confirm cosmic inflation in experiments have been unsuccessful and since the inception of this theory it has been accompanied by serious questions. Paul Steinhardt who was one of its founders has labeled the idea as wrong and 'scientifically inconsequential'.
Is it time to abandon the theory of cosmic inflation and look for an extreme procedure? Or might, say, other theories such as the Big Bounce, or simply disregarding the speed of light, help? Or are such 'alternatives' merely sticking plasters to cover up the fact that people are giving up the Big Bang a dead letter fundamentally?
A Potential Solution
This is a general debate on this topic from last year's festival but with JWST data. It features theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder, author of Lost in Math: Interview with both lead character How Beauty Leads Physics Astray along with open washing Ekeberg and particle physicist Sam Henry.