Hubble Space Telescope Teams Up With Gaia to Measure Precisely the Expansion of the Universe

Using two of the most powerful space telescopes in the world, researchers made the most accurate measurements of the rate of expansion of the Universe. The results are significant and support the idea that the rate of expansion of the near universe is different from that of the distant and primordial universe. The mismatch of the measurements could also suggest the presence of a new physics in the universe.

The expansion of the universe was introduced by Edwin Hubble almost a century ago and contradicts the idea that the universe is static and remains the same.

Researchers use the Hubble telescope to refine measurements of distances to galaxies and calculate how quickly the universe expands over time. The speed at which the universe is developing is called Hubble's constant. But as the measures became more precise over the years, they showed a persistent divergence between previous measures of the current rate of expansion. Astronomers have now refined the value of the Hubble constant by combining observations from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the Gaia Space Observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA),

"With the Adding new data, says George Efstathiou of the Kavli Institute of Cosmology in Cambridge, who was not involved in the study, says:

The measures of the Expansion of the primitive universe (13.8 billion years after the Big Bang).) are performed by the Planck satellite of the European Space Agency, which maps the cosmic microwave background, which is a relic of the big bang, although these measures do not seem to correspond to recent measurements of our contemporary neighbors.With the help of Hubble and Gaia measurements, the researchers have considerably reduced this uncertainty.

"Hubble is really amazing as a generalist.permits an observatory but Gaia is the new benchmark in distance calibration, "said Stefano Casertano of the Institute of Space Telescope Science. "Gaia brings a new ability to recalibrate all past distance measurements, and this seems to confirm our previous work: it's a cross between two very powerful and accurate observatories."