NASA precisely determines how fast the universe expands – and finds results that could alter the understanding of the cosmos



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Scientists have made the most accurate measurement ever of the expansion of the universe – and found a very strange result indeed.

Nasa research used two space telescopes to determine exactly the growth rate of the universe. Discovering this important number could help to understand where the cosmos comes from and where it is going.

But the new precise measure leads to more confusion than it does. There seems to be a strange shift in the way the universe is developing – a discovery that might suggest that there is a whole new physics underlying the universe, which is waiting to be heard. to be found.

The mysterious results could be caused by dark matter, the dark energy being even more exotic than it is previously thought, or a new unknown particle in the "The tapestry of space", says NASA

Scientists have been trying for a long time to determine the growth rate of the universe – known as Hubble constant – as accurately as possible. The discovery of the speed with which it has developed since the big bang 13.8 billion years ago has helped to answer the most fundamental questions about the origin of the bang. universe and its evolution

But as the measurements became more precise, they also became more different. The results that result from the different ways of measuring the rate of expansion are at odds with each other.

Astronomers have an image of where the universe was nearing its beginning, and a measure of the speed at which it has spread since – with these, they should to be able to predict where it is now, but the result they get is wrong. This suggests that there is something wrong with the measurements, or with our understanding of the universe.

Scientists were initially concerned that the discrepancy resulted from an error in one or more of the ways they were trying to measure constant. But new research suggests that this is not the case, and that the measurements are correct, but that something undiscovered changes the way the universe expands.

A measurement comes from the Planck mission of ESA. 360,000 years after birth. By looking at this map, scientists can determine how quickly the universe has become what it is today.

But NASA's new research shows that the rate of expansion calculated from these data does not match that of the universe. see it around us. The new data from the Hubble Space Telescope do not match the calculations of the Planck mission

"The tension seems to have become a total incompatibility between our views of the universe of time sooner and later," said L & # 39; team. Nobel laureate and chef Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. "At this point, clearly, it's not just a gross mistake in a measure.

"It's as if you predict the size of a child from a growth chart and then the adult greatly exceeded the prediction. We are very perplexed. "

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