From the Big Bang to the expanding universe, we imagine we have a detailed account of the origin and formation of the cosmos. But, in the last few years, new evidence from the James Webb Telescope is challenging these assumptions and leading some to propose radically different alternatives. In 2023 the telescope identified a higher rate of expansion for the universe, and mature galaxies billions of years earlier than previously predicted. In 2024, NASA confirmed the differences couldn't be explained by measurement error. In combination these have led some to claim there a crisis in cosmology sufficiently profound to threaten a wholesale change in our understanding.
Do the findings of the James Webb telescope mean our standard account of the universe is mistaken, or can we patch up the current theory to make it compatible with the new observations? Will a new theory require a change to our account of dark energy and the identification of new particles, or is the Big Bang inflation model itself at stake?
