Big old galaxies baffle astronomers, according to a media release from Mt Stromlo/Siding Springs Observatories 8 Jan 2004 and reports in New Scientist, 17 January 2004, p14 and Science vol 303, p460, 23 January 2004. An international team of astronomers co-ordinated by Dr Paul Francis of the Australian National University, including astronomers from the University of Texas, California Institute of Technology and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, have used telescopes in Chile and Australia to find a huge supercluster of 37 galaxies and one quasar formed into a coherent string 300 million light years long. They had to use special filters to pick up the highly red shifted light from the galaxies, which are believed to be 10.8 billion light years away. The universe is believed to have formed by a big bang 13.7 billion years ago, therefore astronomers believe they are looking at galaxies as they were when the universe was less than 3 billion years old. According to Paul Francis “There simply hasn’t been enough time since the Big Bang for it to form structures this colossal.” Other astronomers from the University of Toronto studied galaxies believed to be between 8 and 11 billion years old and were surprised to find “fat sedate galaxies much like our own”. They were expecting to find “small galaxies in a state of frantic flux”.
Editorial Comment: The age of these galaxies is based on beliefs such as light has always travelled at its current velocity and red shift is evidence of retreating galaxies. If either of these assumptions can be challenged, then the universe can end up being young and quite stable. Anyone who believes the universe was created in six days, not all that long ago, is not surprised to see apparently mature galaxies at any distance. For further explanation of the changing speed of light and its implications from Barry Setterfield, who has researched the topic for many years see the DVD The Decreasing Speed of Light available from Creation research. (Ref. galaxies, time, light)