Steady State Universe

l No stars greater than 14 billion years old
l No newly formed galaxies (all formed at same time)

Slide 11 of 22

The steady state universe theory claimed that the universe was eternal and that galaxies and stars were born throughout the universe over time. The theory ran up against the reality of the observations of the universe. There are no stars greater than 14 billion years old, even though small stars can have a lifetimes greater than 30 billion years. In addition, all the galaxies we see are fully formed. The only "young" galaxies we see are those that are at the limits of the age of the universe (very far away). In reality, because of relativity, in looking at young galaxies, we are looking at galaxies that were forming only 1 billion years after the Big Bang event (it has taken the light 12 billion years to reach the earth). Because of these problems, there are virtually no cosmologists today who believe in the steady state universe.