NASA has revealed that “something strange” is happening with how our universe is expanding that cannot be explained by current physics.
Data from the Hubble Space Telescope showed a significant discrepancy between the rate of expansion of the current universe compared to the rate immediately after the Big Bang.
The iconic Orbital Observatory has just completed a 30-year marathon of data collection. Using this information, Hubble was then able to determine more than 40 “mile markers” of space and time to help scientists more accurately measure the rate of expansion of the universe.
However, the US space agency said that the more accurate these measures, they indicated that “something strange” was happening.
The reason for this discrepancy remains a mystery. But the Hubble data, which includes a variety of cosmic objects that act as landmarks, supports the idea that something strange is happening, possibly involving entirely new physics, NASA officials said.
Experts have been studying the expansion rate of the universe since the 1920s using measurements made by astronomer Edwin B. Hubble and George Lemaitre.
And when NASA invented a large space telescope in the 1970s, a key rationale for the extraordinary technical cost and effort was the ability to resolve Cepheids—stars that periodically brighten and dim, seen within our 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.
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 by the Hubble Space Telescope measured 42 major signs of a supernova — more than double the previous sample of cosmic distance markers.
However, when I started collecting information about the expansion of the universe, a contradiction arose.
Hubble’s measurements suggest the rate is about 45 miles (73 km) per mega-persec, but when observations of the deep universe are taken into account, this slows to about 42 miles (67.5 km) per mega-persic.
A megapersec is defined as a measurement of distance equal to one million astronomical persic, or 3.26 million light-years.
This suggests that the evolution and expansion of the universe is more complex than we realized, and that there is more to learn about how the universe has changed.
NASA said astronomers were “confused” as to why there were two different values, but suggested that we might have to rethink the underlying physics.
“You get the most accurate measure of the expansion rate of the universe from the gold standard for telescopes and cosmic tilt markers,” said Nobel laureate Adam Rees, of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
This would probably be Hubble’s greatest achievement, because it would take another 30 years of Hubble’s life to double the sample size.
NASA is now hoping to get more clarity about the expansion of the universe with the help of the James Webb Space Telescope, which was launched in December last year. It should allow scientists to see new landmarks further and with better accuracy.
Source: Daily Mail