Time appears to flow five times slower in the early universe, according to a scientific study, which for the first time uses unusually bright cosmic bodies, quasars, to confirm this strange phenomenon.
• Also read: Let’s see: a meteor seen in the skies over Quebec
• Also read: A mysterious donut-shaped rock discovered on Mars
• Also read: Mysterious fireballs in the skies over Japan: possibly Chinese missile debris
Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity predicts that due to the expansion of the universe, “we should observe the growth of the distant universe in slow motion,” explains to France Press Geraint Lewis, an astrophysicist at the University of Sydney and first author of the study published Monday in natural astronomy.
The researchers used the observation of stars that end their lives in exploding, supernovae, to show that time seemed to pass twice as slow when the universe was half its current age, which is 13.8 billion years.
The new study uses quasars, which are incomparably brighter, to date back up to a billion years after the birth of the universe. Time seems to flow five times slower there, according to the study.
“Everything seems to be going in slow motion” to the current observer, according to Professor Lewis, but “if I could magically teleport you ten billion years ago to drop you near one of these quasars, and watch your stopwatch, everything would feel natural,” he explained. .
“The second will be a second,” he added.
To measure this phenomenon, called cosmic time dilation, Professor Lewis and statistician Brendon Brewer from the University of New Zealand in Auckland analyzed data from 190 quasars, collected over a 20-year period.
Quasars, galactic nuclei with a supermassive black hole at their centre, are said to be the most luminous and energetic objects in the universe. making them “easy-to-use beacons for mapping the universe,” according to Professor Lewis.
The difficulty was turning them into supernova-friendly cosmic clocks. The latter provide a single signal, but it can be relied upon over time.
For quasars, the researchers achieved their goal thanks to a large amount of data and recent advances in the statistical understanding of random events.
In this case, the researchers were able to explain the multiple vibrations that occur when matter is sucked in by the quasar’s black hole.
Professor Lewis likens it to a fireworks display, in which large sprays seem to go off at random, but the items ‘brighten and then fade’ in a fixed, regular time frame.
“We stripped down this fireworks display, and showed that quasars can also be used as time beacons for the early days of the universe,” he said. Thus showing that “Einstein is right again”.
