How come the universe is growing so fast? Scientists aren’t sure, and there’s a chance that there’s physics at work that we’re not aware of.

According to new scientific studies on the Hubble constant, our ever-growing universe may be expanding much faster than previously thought, hinting that something strange is happening in the universe that modern science may be unable to explain.

These discoveries, which were shared by NASA, were first published on the pre-print site arXiv and will be published in the peer-reviewed academic journal The Astrophysical Journal.

What’s going on here, exactly?

The fact that the universe is always getting bigger is a very important part of understanding it.

This theory was first proposed by astronomer Edwin Hubble roughly a century ago when he discovered additional galaxies outside the Milky Way and discovered that they were constantly moving away.

Furthermore, the farther an item is from the Milky Way, the faster it appears to move.

We don’t know how quickly everything is traveling right now, but knowing this could help us comprehend the rate of expansion, or the constant pace at which the cosmos expands, which is known as the Hubble constant. Knowing this can assist us figure out when it started.

To put it another way, it may potentially be utilized to tell us how old the universe is.

So, what exactly is the issue?

Even after all these years, most scientists are still baffled by Hubble’s discoveries.

This is confusing for a few reasons.

The first is that the universe isn’t simply growing. Rather, it has gone through two phases of cosmic acceleration, as described by physicists.

The first occurred shortly after the Big Bang, whereas the second occurred approximately nine billion years later. This latter stage is still in progress.

This was expanded upon in 1998 when scientists looked at distant supernovae to demonstrate the rising cosmic acceleration.

That finding was already revolutionary, and the scientists who made it, Adam Riess and Brian Schmidt, received the Nobel Prize in Physics for it in 2011.

What is causing this increase in speed?

Dark energy is assumed to be the cause of the growth. This force is found all around the universe, and it is thought to make up the majority of the universe’s energy.

However, we also have no understanding what dark energy is.

However, we’ve made significant progress in this area over the years. Riess, in particular, has organized a research collaboration called SHOES (Supernova, H0, for the Equation of State of Dark Energy) to examine this using the Hubble Space Telescope.

But another recent study has shown that the Hubble constant might not be as constant as previously thought.

To oversimplify a very complicated problem in astrophysics, the rate of acceleration doesn’t seem to match what was expected.

New findings from this new study may alter the course of history.

The research

The Hubble Space Telescope was used by the SHOES team to collect data from studies of a variety of objects that serve as “cosmic milepost markers.” Cepheids, stars in the Milky Way and other galaxies that brighten and dim periodically, and supernovae are among these objects. When these elements are integrated, scientists can develop a “cosmic distance ladder” to quantify cosmic acceleration.

“This is what the Hubble Space Telescope was built to do,” Riess remarked, “using the best techniques we know to do it.”

“This is likely Hubble’s magnum opus,” Adam Riess added, “because it would take another 30 years of Hubble’s life to even double this sample size.”

Things are starting to get weird.

The SHOES team devised a new expansion rate for the universe, which appears to be speeding rapidly.

The Hubble constant, as predicted by scientists, was 67.5 kilometers per second per megaparsec plus or minus 0.5 kilometers per second per megaparsec.

However, according to the SHOES team, it’s at 73. And, according to them, the chances of them being wrong are one in a million.

Prior to this, there existed a general knowledge of the dynamic evolution of the cosmos, even though scientists were still trying to find the Hubble constant.

These discoveries effectively turn little gaps in that knowledge into huge voids.

What is causing this? Scientists aren’t sure, and there’s a chance that there’s physics at action that we haven’t yet figured out or even discovered.

Why is the expansion of the universe important to us?

This is a big question with much more complicated answers, but to put it another way, it could tell us, or offer us clues about, the universe’s ultimate fate.

According to one popular hypothesis, the universe will continue to expand, the matter will get less dense as a result, and eventually, all matter will dissolve in what is known as the universe’s heat death.

Other possibilities, such as the Big Crunch or Big Rip, exist as well, but we have no idea what will happen in the end.

To some, this is a frightening concept, but to others, it simply means that science will have more difficulties and areas to study.

Is there any way we can find out additional information?

Yes, but not in the case of Hubble. That space telescope has been in operation for more than 30 years and has far outlived its original design life.

However, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is a new space telescope.

The James Webb telescope, which is expected to carry on Hubble’s work by taking closer and more comprehensive looks at cosmic milepost markers, is set to be set up farther out in orbit and with various instruments and capabilities that make it far more advanced than its predecessor.

And, maybe, this, as well as many other great mysteries of the cosmos, will be solved one day.

Image Credit: Getty

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