Fine-Structure Constant Changed Over Time

In a groundbreaking new study, a group of investigators has established from astronomical studies that the fine-structure constant (FSC) of the Universe is not the same now as it was a short while after the Big Band. This implies that not all laws of nature are the same over a lot of time and space.

These conclusions were derived from analysis of light emitted by very distant quasars (quasi-stellar radio sources), These objects are in fact very energetic and distant active galactic nuclei. 

Analysis of the data collected by the world's most powerful telescopes have revealed that the value now associated with the FSC is not the same now as it was when the Universe was just a fraction of its current age.

The findings have yet to be confirmed via the peer-review process but, if they are, then the way we now understand space and time is about the change the way we look at, and perceive, the Cosmos.

FSC, also called alpha, is in fact the coupling constant for the electromagnetic force, physicists say. Life itself is heavily dependent on the value of alpha, seeing how if the constant were just 4 percent bigger or smaller, life could not exist throughout the Universe.

The elevated or lowered values wouldn't have brought about a universal cataclysm or anything like that, but it would have made it impossible for chemicals such as carbon and oxygen to be produced inside new stars. Without these elements, there can be no life as we know it.

According to the new study, alpha variated in every single direction in the Universe by a tiny fraction, sometime in the distant past. Overall, it appears to be slightly larger in the southern hemisphere, and smaller in the northern one.

One of the most interesting things that results from this interplay is that our cosmic neighborhood appears to be in the exact position where life can occur.

But the causality links here are actually reversed – it's life that appeared here because of appropriate conditions, Daily Galaxy reports. 

The new investigation was conducted by scientists at the University of New South Wales, in Australia, who were led by expert physicist John Webb. He and his group used two large telescopes to observe more than 100 quasars, both in the northern and southern skies.

For the northern hemisphere, they used the W.M. Keck Telescope atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, whereas for the southern one they used the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope, at Cerro Paranal, in Chile.