Is the Universe Younger than We Thought?

New research suggests our Universe may be significantly younger than previously calculated. If the findings of this study are correct, it could change what we know about the Cosmos.

The age of the Universe, staring with the big bang, is generally thought to be around 13.8 billion years old. However, a new study from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) suggests the Universe may be significantly younger than believed — around 11 billion years old.

The Hubble constant — a measure of the rate at which the Cosmos is expanding — is the critical figure in determining the age of the Universe. The faster galaxies are flying apart from each other, the younger the Universe must be to have expanded its present size.

The gravitational lenses observed in the new study. On the left is B1608+656 — a pair of galaxies, denoted G1 and 2. Four images of a quasar in the background can be seen near points at A-D. On the right, the galaxy RXJ1131 (labeled G) creates four images of another quasar in the background (A-D). The small dot, S, is a satellite galaxy of RXJ1131. Image courtesy of and copyright MPA.

“There are multiple ways to measure distances in the Universe, based on our knowledge of the object whose distance is being measured. A well-known technique is the luminosity distance using supernovae explosions,” explains Sherry Suyu of the MPA, an expert on using gravitational lensing to measure the Hubble constant.

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