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When might the Big Bang theory be overturned or replaced?

The Big Bang model is remarkably successful, but all scientific theories are provisional. I'm curious about its potential "falsification" criteria. What kind of future observation perhaps from the James Webb Space Telescope or gravitational wave astronomy would fundamentally contradict the model's core predictions and force a paradigm shift in cosmology?

 

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By Malvika Mathur Answered 1 year ago

The Big Bang framework a hot, dense, expanding origin is incredibly robust, supported by the CMB, light element abundances, and Hubble's law. To overturn it would require a monumental inconsistency. I have seen the community grow attentive to tensions, like the Hubble constant dispute, but these point to new physics within the model (like dark energy evolution), not its abandonment. True falsification would require something like: discovering a clear, large-scale violation of cosmological isotropy in the CMB that can't be explained by inflation, or finding objects with redshifts that definitively contradict the age-redshift relation. Even then, a modified Big Bang (e.g., with a bounce) is more likely than a return to a steady-state universe..

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