Is the Universe 13.8 or 26.7 billion years old?

Today, after unprecedented measurements of galaxies all throughout cosmic history, all-sky imaging of the Universe at microwave wavelengths, and thousands upon thousands of supernovae and other transient events all across the Universe, we finally have our answers to these questions. Our Universe, made of 68% dark energy, 27% dark matter, and just 5% “normal stuff,” began from a small, dense, nearly-perfectly-uniform state some 13.8 billion years ago in a hot Big Bang, and has been expanding, cooling, and gravitating ever since. At least, that’s the consensus picture. Recently, a challenge to that picture has <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/07/14/universe-may-older-than-thought-study-shows/70411343007/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">gotten some popular attention</a>, based on a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/mnras/stad2032/7221343?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">recently published paper</a> claiming that the Universe is actually 26.7 billion years old, not 13.8 billion years old. Let’s look at these two theories side-by-side, and unpack what’s true versus what we’d need to be true in order to truly determine the age of the Universe. <a href="https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/is-the-universe-13-8-or-26-7-billion-years-old-575cad780916">Click Here</a>