For the first time, it was possible to confirm by astronomical observations that time passes five times slower for an observer on Earth in the most distant regions of the universe. In his special theory of relativity published in 1905 and his general theory of relativity published in 1916, Albert Einstein actually predicted time dilation, that is, the relativistic phenomenon when a difference occurs in the passage of time when observed from two different reference systems.
Examining the early universe is like watching a slow-motion movie
From a detailed analysis of 190 quasars, the research team from the University of Auckland (New Zealand) came to the realization that events occur five times more slowly in the region of the universe where we see the universe as a billion years old. According to the cosmological theory generally accepted today, the Universe arose 13.8 billion years ago from a single singularity with the so-called Big Bang, which did not exist before either space or time.
Thus, the billion-year state of the universe means that part of space that is 12.8 billion light-years away from us and is observable. According to Geran Lewis, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Sydney, if we study this region of the early universe
It’s like watching a slow motion movie.
In his general theory of relativity, created in 1915 and published the following year, Albert Einstein described gravity as a consequence of the curvature of space-time, and developed a cosmological model of an expanding but finite and infinite universe.
(Experimental astrophysical evidence of curvature of the universe was found by Arthur Eddington in 1919, and expansion of the universe by American astronomer Edwin Hubble in 1929.) One consequence of the expansion of the universe is that light stretches and changes as it travels through cosmic space, and its wavelength becomes longer.
Among other things, this phenomenon can be traced back to the fact that as astronomers observe more and more old galaxies, their spectrum shifts towards the red.
That is why time in cosmic space passes more slowly or faster
But not only light, but also time stretches according to Einstein’s model. The so-called time dilation is a relative phenomenon that when it is observed from two different reference systems, a difference in the passage of time occurs.
Given the reference system considered to be at rest, the duration of the event that occurs in the moving reference system becomes longer compared to the time measured in the moving system with the event, as the time dilation appears in the form of length contraction, that is, a relative shortening. Two simultaneous events from one system, but different from the other, that is, according to Einstein’s theory of special relativity, there is no absolute simultaneity.
The gravitational time dilation predicted by general relativity is the type of time shift that occurs as observations in different reference systems accelerate relative to each other. The lower the so-called gravitational potential, the slower time passes, and conversely, if the gravitational potential increases, time also speeds up.
Einstein wasn’t wrong now either
It was co-authored by astrophysicists from the University of Sydney and the University of Auckland natural astronomy in a professional magazine In a study published July 3, 2023 Researchers have determined the extent of time dilation in the very distant universe. For this purpose, the data was collected by observing quasars, which are special objects that are extremely powerful light sources. (Quasars are powerful star-like radio sources whose luminosity can exceed the brightness of the core of the brightest, so-called Sv galaxies by several times.)
Researchers from the University of Auckland analyzed a total of 190 quasars in detail. Through exhaustive analysis of the light of quasars, they obtained samples of it
With the help of which it was possible to determine
How time passes (more precisely: it passed) at a distance of billions of light years, that is, in the early state of the Universe. Until now, it had not been possible to precisely observe or measure the time dilation of the early universe, and now researchers have found that time passes five times slower in the billion-year-old universe, again validating Einstein’s predictions over a century ago.
