date of publication:
May 23 2022 18:29 GMT
Update date: May 23 2022 19:20 GMT
NASA’s Hubble telescope has detected changes in the expansion rate of the universe that cannot be explained by current physics.
“Something strange is happening with how our universe is expanding, and it can’t be explained by current physics,” NASA said.
Data taken from the Hubble Space Telescope revealed a large discrepancy between the current expansion rate of the universe compared to the rate immediately after the Big Bang.
The iconic orbiting observatory has just completed a 30-year test of data collection.
Using this information, Hubble was able to identify more than 40 “location marks” of space and time, to help scientists measure the expansion rate of the universe more accurately.
However, the US space agency indicated that “the more accurate these procedures are, the more they indicate that something strange is happening,” noting that “the reason for this discrepancy is still a mystery.”
“The Hubble data, which includes a variety of cosmic bodies and act as distance markers, supports the idea that something strange is happening, possibly involving entirely new physics,” NASA officials said.
Scientists have begun to study the expansion rate of the universe since the 1920s, using measurements made by astronomers Edwin Hubble and Georges Lemaître.
When NASA created a large space telescope in the 1970s, one of the main reasons for the high cost and extraordinary technical effort was its ability to decipher the mystery of cepheids, stars that light up and dim periodically, that can be seen within our own Milky Way and outer galaxies.
Cepheids have been the gold standard for cosmic tilt markers since astronomer Henrietta Swan-Levitt discovered their usefulness in 1912.
Astronomers use supernovae, called Type Ia supernovae, to calculate the distances to the universe.
The grouping of these objects together created the “cosmic distance ladder” across the universe that is necessary to measure the expansion rate of the universe, which is called the “Hubble constant.”
This value is crucial to estimating the age of the universe and provides a basic test of understanding it.
It can be used to predict how fast an astronomical object is moving away from Earth at a known distance, although the true value of the Hubble constant is still being discussed.
Nearly 25 years ago, astronomers also discovered dark energy, which NASA describes as a “mysterious driving force accelerating the expansion of the universe.”
The new research, conducted by the Hubble Space Telescope, succeeded in measuring 42 of the main signs of a supernova, which is more than double the previous sample of cosmic distance markers.