Einstein was correct: time passed 5 times slower when the universe was a newborn, according to a new research

According to Reuters, scientists discovered in their new study that time went slower in the early era of the universe — around 12.43 billion years ago — than it does now, since astronomers used quasars as clocks to estimate and quantify how time passed in the early cosmos.

Quasars are very active supermassive black holes that are billions of times more massive than our sun and are typically found in the cores of big galaxies.

Because of their massive gravitational power, they suck stuff into themselves, unleashing torrents of radiation including jets of high-energy particles, while a blazing disc of highly charged matter spins around them.

The study was carried out by monitoring the brightness of 190 quasars spread around the cosmos dating back to roughly 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, which is thought to have given birth to the universe.

The findings were reported in Nature Astronomy.

Scientists compared the brightness of quasars at different wavelengths to that of today, discovering that some oscillations that occur in a given amount of time now occurred five times more slowly in the most ancient quasars.

According to Einstein's general theory of relativity, time and space are inextricably linked, and the universe has been expanding in all directions since the Big Bang.

The study's primary author, astronomer Geraint Lewis of the University of Sydney in Australia, explained how time flowed more slowly earlier in the universe's history compared to now.

It does not imply that everything was progressing slowly. A second would seem like a second to someone if it existed back then, but a second back then would feel like today's five to someone today.

"In modern physics, time is a complicated thing," Lewis explained.

"Dr. Who was correct when he said that time is best described as 'wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.'" This means that we don't fully comprehend time and its limitations, and certain possibilities remain open: time travel, warp drives, and so on. The future may be really exciting, or it could not."

Because of the length of time it takes for light to travel across space, scientists can glimpse back in time by looking at distant objects.

Based on studies of supernova explosions, scientists previously verified time dilation extending back nearly 7 billion years.

Knowing how long it takes for today's supernovas to brighten and fade, scientists investigated earlier explosions — those at tremendous distances from Earth — and discovered that these events proceeded more slowly than from our time perspective.

Individual star explosions cannot be visible beyond a certain distance, limiting their relevance in researching the early cosmos. Quasars are so luminous that they can be seen all the way back to the beginnings of the cosmos.

"The quasar brightness is what is observed over time." This varies up and down as a result of complex physics in the disc of stuff whirling at almost light speed around a black hole."

"This brightness shift isn't just a bright, fade, brilliant, fade. "It appears to be more like the stock market, with small-scale jitters on longer-term changes and some sharp fluctuations," Lewis explained.

"The statistical properties of light variations include a time scale - a typical time for the fluctuations to have a specific statistical property." "We use this to set the ticking of each quasar," Lewis continued.