Big bang

The Universe is almost twice as old as we thought, according to a new study that challenges the leading cosmological model.

Experts from the University of Ottawa have devised a new model and claim that the Big Bang happened 26.7 billion years ago.

This is almost twice as old as previous estimates, which suggest that our universe dates back 13.7 billion years.

'Our newly-devised model stretches the galaxy formation time by a several billion years, making the universe 26.7 billion years old, and not 13.7 as previously estimated,' said Professor Rajendra Gupta, an author of the study.