Wal Thornhill, before he died earlier this year, or was it last year, predicted that the James Webb Space Telescope, when it started sending back data, would cause a big rethink of some of the cosmological and mainstream paradigms that go unchallenged. At https://phys.org/news/2023-08-universe-theory-believed.html … we have the beginnings of just that. How old is the universe? Until James Webb came onboard the answer would inevitably be around 13.8 billion years ago.
We might put that another way. When did Big Bang occur? The new space telescope allows astronomers to look deeper into the universe. They expected to see details of the early universe but instead, have found the deeper they peer the same old type of galaxy appears. Where are the formative ones? It seems as if the models and calculations involved in the 13.8 billion years ago beginning may be in error. Rajendra Gupta, says his new model, developed with the new space telescope findings, has expanded the age to 26.7 billion years ago. Is this a provisional number. Will it be pushed back even further?
The age estimates are derived from the universe’s expansion rate by measuring the redshift of spectral lines in the light emitted by distant galaxies. However, see Halton Arp on redshift.
Gupta goes on to explain redshift and expansion of the universe – and therefore the idea of a beginning. A creation event. Big Bang. Then we have cosmic microwave background. Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and Fritz Zwicky.