The Problem of the Age of the Universe and the Earliest Galaxies

Abstract

A number of years ago the estimates of astronomers and astrophysicists were that the earliest galaxies took about 2.5 to 3 billion years to form, that is, that they did not appear until 2.5 to 3 billion years after the Big Bang. Those estimates were based on analysis of the processes involved in star formation and in the aggregation and "clumping" of matter in the early universe. Since then improved equipment and techniques, e.g. Keck and Hubble telescopes and gravitational lensing, have resulted in reports of observation of early galaxies having stars that formed as early as 300 million years after the Big Bang. Such new data has led to the abandonment of the several billion years estimates of the time required for star and galaxy formation; however, an alternative response to the data would be to re-examine the Hubble theory from which the age of the universe and the distance to high redshift objects is determined.