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The universe may be a billion years younger than we thought. Scientists are scrambling...
NBC ^ | May 18, 2019, | Corey S. Powell

Posted on 05/19/2019 7:11:57 AM PDT by BenLurkin

By 2013, the European Planck space telescope's detailed measurements of cosmic radiation seemed to have yielded the final answer: 13.8 billion years old. All that was left to do was to verify that number using independent observations of bright stars in other galaxies.

Then came an unexpected turn of events.

A few teams, including one led by Nobel laureate Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, set out to make those observations. Instead of confirming Planck's measurements, they started getting a distinctly different result.

At first, the common assumption was that Riess and the other galaxy-watchers had made a mistake. But as their observations continued to come in, the results didn't budge. Reanalysis of the Planck data didn't show any problems, either.

If all the numbers are correct, then the problem must run deeper. It must lie in our interpretation of those numbers — that is, in our fundamental models of how the universe works.

The latest galaxy studies indicate an expansion rate about 9 percent faster than the answer from Planck. That might not sound like much of a disagreement, but over cosmic history it adds up to that full billion years of lost time.

The "tension" reminds scientists of just how much they still don't understand about the underlying laws of nature. Dunkley points to the ghostly particles known as neutrinos, which are extremely abundant throughout space. "We measure neutrinos in the lab and put them in our cosmological model assuming that they are behaving just as we expect them to, but we simply don't know if that's true," she says. "I wouldn't find it surprising if dark matter turned out to be more complicated than we think, too."

(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: adamriess; astronomy; billion; darkenergy; darkforce; darkmatter; jodunkley; neutrinos; science; speedofdark; stringtheory; universe; wendyfreedman
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To: BenLurkin

Just Damn!


21 posted on 05/19/2019 7:52:46 AM PDT by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west))
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To: allendale

Thus far there is no conclusive experimental proof to confirm the big bang theory or even the actual existence of black holes.

...

Scientists just took a picture of a black hole. The image matched what they expected to see according to theory.

Scientists have also observed the gravity waves generated by the collisions of black holes. The waves matched what they expected to see according to theory.


22 posted on 05/19/2019 7:52:57 AM PDT by Moonman62 (Facts are racist.)
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To: trebb

So, does this mean the universe isn’t/might not be accelerating in its expansion or is it another topic altogether?

...

This means that the Universe could be accelerating up to nine percent faster than previously observed.


23 posted on 05/19/2019 7:54:34 AM PDT by Moonman62 (Facts are racist.)
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To: BenLurkin

A billion years here, a billion years there, pretty soon you’re talking about a significant amount of time!


24 posted on 05/19/2019 7:54:51 AM PDT by dayglored ("Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government."`)
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To: gibsonguy

“Trying to put mortal constraints on a timeless and endless thing seems an exercise in futility IMHO.”

Trying to put mortal constraints on a cyclical event of its 3rd “big Bang” seems an exercise in futility IMHO.

(I had a dream and “it” told me I was living in the 3rd incarnation of nada....)


25 posted on 05/19/2019 7:55:40 AM PDT by litehaus (A memory toooo long.............)
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To: BenLurkin

The massively ignorant and haters of science will interpret this as a victory for themselves.


26 posted on 05/19/2019 7:56:28 AM PDT by Moonman62 (Facts are racist.)
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To: BenLurkin

Take your vitamin pill and you’ll stay young too


27 posted on 05/19/2019 7:57:23 AM PDT by faithhopecharity ( “Politicians are not born; they are excreted.” Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
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To: ivory49

That’s great but God gave us the curiosity and intelligence to want to find out more and keep striving.

Lots of people believe ridiculous things by closing their minds and misinterpreting the Bible or taking some of the old testament verses as words to still be acted on. Killing people for committing adultery is a little outdated for Christians. And it was for Jesus.

We are not muslims. Thank God.


28 posted on 05/19/2019 7:58:24 AM PDT by dp0622 (The Left should know if.. Trump is kicked out of office, it is WAR)
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To: BenLurkin

I would imagine that the time scale they use would be akin to logarithmic; it probably moved faster at the start than the present. (Except, last week the speed of the big bang was speeding up—meaning something is pulling us now.)

The good news—and reason we shouldn’t care all that much is that we will be dust a million times over by the time we figure all of this stuff. And then they will have to figure out where the dust came from.


29 posted on 05/19/2019 7:58:56 AM PDT by Vermont Lt (If we get Medicare for all, will we have to show IDs for service?)
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To: BenLurkin

Scientists say telescopes can see a galaxy 13.26 billion light-years away. That is only in one direction. If we point the telescopes in the opposite direction, we can see galaxies from another 13 billion light years away. Those two sightings add up to 26 billion light years. None of the scientist’s math adds up.


30 posted on 05/19/2019 8:00:40 AM PDT by aimhigh (THIS is His commandment . . . . 1 John 3:23)
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To: BenLurkin

Their calculation is akin to extrapolating a line between two points in the stock market and saying this predicts the future.


31 posted on 05/19/2019 8:03:32 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Capitalism produces EVERYTHING Socialists/Communists/Democratic-Socialists wish to "redistribute.")
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To: Drew68

There is no “settled science” when it comes to .... (fill in the blank)


32 posted on 05/19/2019 8:04:26 AM PDT by CIB-173RDABN (I am not an expert in anything, and my opinion is just that, an opinion. I may be wrong.)
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To: BenLurkin

And professing themselves to be wise they became as fools.

What’s a billion years here or there....


33 posted on 05/19/2019 8:05:14 AM PDT by JudyinCanada
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To: BenLurkin

And professing themselves to be wise they became as fools.

What’s a billion years here or there....


34 posted on 05/19/2019 8:05:14 AM PDT by JudyinCanada
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To: aimhigh

If it’s 13 billion years in both directions, that means we are at the center of the universe, which is probably not true.

What this really says is 13 billion years is a far as their telescopes can see.


35 posted on 05/19/2019 8:05:33 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Capitalism produces EVERYTHING Socialists/Communists/Democratic-Socialists wish to "redistribute.")
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To: Drew68

Some mathematicians don’t necessarily agree that the universe is expanding, but that it curves around. One I read uses the analogy of someone looking through a very powerful telescope and seeing the back of his head.


36 posted on 05/19/2019 8:07:14 AM PDT by odawg
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To: BenLurkin

Maybe light is only billions of years old. The universe (void) is much older than that.

As Father Meyer once said on SCTV:

In the beginning, there was nothing.

Then the Lord said “Let there be light”

And there still was nothing, but youse could see it.


37 posted on 05/19/2019 8:12:26 AM PDT by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: BenLurkin

‘Settled Science’ means science settled in the Left’s favor so they can go about ramrodding their agenda without impediments.


38 posted on 05/19/2019 8:14:01 AM PDT by libh8er
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To: allendale

“or even the actual existence of black holes.

What was the recent black hole picture of then?


39 posted on 05/19/2019 8:15:42 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion
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To: BenLurkin

What was there before the universe?


40 posted on 05/19/2019 8:17:21 AM PDT by Cowboy Bob ("Other People's Money" = The life blood of Liberalism)
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