A huge investigation of quasars variability has  concluded that they do not show any time dilation, and thus seem to defy either the expansion of the universe or Einsteins generak theory of relativity.

The timescale of quasar variability is widely expected to show the effects of time dilation as an effect of the redshift caused by the expansion of space.

Quasars that are farther away from us, ought to feature a slow-down in their perceived (measured) brightness variation, due to time-dilation because they are moving away from us, due to space expansion.

Over the last decade a number investigations has tried to find such a time dilation, but with no luck.

There can be a number of reasons why they have failed to show such a relationship; eg. that the number of investiged quasars has been too small or covering a too short period of time.

The illustration to the right (Image courtesy of NRAO/AUI) , show the duration of the variation in the jet of 3C279.

This is why Michael Hawkins from University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, has spend over 10years examining no less than 407 quasar's variablity over a period of 24years. 

But the examination of their Fourier spectra has still been unable to detect any such pattern, in the large sample of quasars investigated.

M. Hawkins concludes his abstract with a rather laconic comment, that "The possible explanations of this result, all conflict with widely held consensus in the scientific community" meaning that we either has found a contradiction to the Big Bang or the theory of relativity, unless there is some other explanation

Source arXiv