This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: An alternative model in which the universe is 26.7 billion years old and needs neither dark matter nor dark energy has held up against several major cosmology tests, according to a new University of Ottawa study. The research, titled "A Big Bang Nucleosynthesis Consistency Test of the CCC+TL Cosmology," is published in the journal Universe.
During 2025 and 2026, Rajendra Gupta, adjunct professor in uOttawa's Department of Physics, and postdoctoral researcher Dr. Nikolaos Samaras tested the CCC+TL model against a range of important astronomical observations. CCC+TL stands for "covarying coupling constants plus tired light." The model suggests that what is usually attributed to dark matter and dark energy could instead come from evolving fundamental constants that govern how forces and particles interact.
Scientists have searched for dark matter and dark energy for decades, but neither has been directly detected. The standard cosmological model, known as ΛCDM, also faces questions raised by observations of surprisingly mature galaxies in the early universe. "Most emerging models explain only a limited set of observations," Gupta says.
"A new model must not conflict with the pillars of cosmology and astrophysics, and our findings meet that challenge, including the yet-to-be-published cosmic microwave background challenge." CCC+TL changes the Einstein and Friedmann equations, which describe gravity and the expansion of the universe. That meant the researchers couldn't just modify the standard model and existing computer codes. For each test, they developed CCC+TL-compliant equations and code.
The model's results agreed with several major observations. Its predictions for the amounts of hydrogen, helium and other light elements formed shortly after the Big Bang matched those of the standard model. It also agreed with cosmic-chronometer measurements, which use the ages of galaxies to estimate how fast the universe has expanded over time.
In a recent paper published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the researchers also applied the model to all 175 galaxies in the SPARC database and found it could reproduce their rotation curves without dark matter. A separate study of time dilation in supernova observations also supports the model, although that paper is still under review. The team looked at the Bullet Cluster too.
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