Is the big bang theory wrong? (Image: Lynette Cook/Science Photo Library)

WHY do distant galaxies seem to age at the same rate as those closer to us when big bang theory predicts that time should appear to slow down at greater distances from Earth? No one can yet answer this new question, but one controversial idea is that the galaxies’ light is being bent by intervening black holes that formed shortly after the big bang.

Space has been expanding since the big bang, stretching light from distant objects to longer, redder wavelengths – a process called “red shift”. The expansion …