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The universe is expanding faster than we thought, and no one knows why
CNET ^ | April 25, 2019 10:46 AM PDT | By Eric Mack

Posted on 04/26/2019 10:49:03 AM PDT by Red Badger

Explaining a discrepancy between what was happening 13 billion years ago and now may require new physics.

It's become clear that something in the cosmos just doesn't add up. The universe is getting bigger every second. In fact, it's expanding at a much faster rate than it should.

For some time now there's been a mismatch in observations of the early universe done with the European Space Agency's Planck Telescope and what astronomers see when they measure the more nearby, modern parts of space with NASA's Hubble Telescope. (Keep in mind that looking at distant parts of the universe with powerful telescopes is the same as looking back in time).

When scientists look at what was going on 13 billion years ago, via Planck, and then extrapolate that into the present, the results don't match what Hubble sees today. For several years, there's been an assumption that the disagreement is due to a lack of precision in the measurements. But as scientists have fine-tuned their tools, the discrepancy has remained. On Thursday, researchers using Hubble said the chances the mismatch is some sort of user error or fluke have gone from 1 in 3,000 to 1 in 100,000.

"The Hubble tension between the early and late universe may be the most exciting development in cosmology in decades," lead researcher and Nobel laureate Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute, which leads Hubble's science mission, said in a statement. "This mismatch has been growing and has now reached a point that is really impossible to dismiss as a fluke. This disparity could not plausibly occur just by chance."

The Hubble team's results have been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.

Riess says the discrepancy strongly suggests there's a piece missing in the puzzle that scientists have put together over the years to model the history of the universe.

One possible explanation could be the appearance of dark energy at some point long ago. It's now theorized that up to 70 percent of the universe may be made up of the mysterious stuff. A yet undiscovered and speedy particle in the universe that affects its expansion is another possibility, as is the idea that unseen dark matter might be pushing on the normal matter we can see more strongly than we thought.

The actual explanation remains a mystery. Riess and other scientists plan to continue fine-tuning their tools and measurements, but if the mismatch isn't due to human error, new physics may be needed to complete the puzzle.

"Previously, theorists would say to me, 'it can't be. It's going to break everything.' Now they are saying, 'we actually could do this,'" Riess said.


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Astronomy; Education; History; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; science; stringtheory; universe
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To: Red Badger
Mrs. Singer: He's been depressed. All of a sudden, he can't do anything.
Doctor: Why are you depressed, Alvy?
Mrs. Singer: Tell Dr. Flicker. [To the doctor] It's something he read.
Doctor: Something he read, huh?
Alvy: The universe is expanding...Well, the universe is everything, and if it's expanding, some day it will break apart and that will be the end of everything.
Mrs. Singer: What is that your business?! [To the doctor] He stopped doing his homework.
Alvy: What's the point?
Mrs. Singer: What has the universe got to do with it? You're here in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is not expanding!
Doctor: It won't be expanding for billions of years, yet Alvy. And we've got to try to enjoy ourselves while we're here, huh, huh? Ha, ha, ha.

21 posted on 04/26/2019 10:58:45 AM PDT by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrat's John Dean])
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To: JimRed

And yet, they are absolutely sure that man-made climate change is a “thing”.


22 posted on 04/26/2019 10:58:50 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Red Badger

This can’t be the case. If goes against the “consensus” and “settled science.”


23 posted on 04/26/2019 10:59:10 AM PDT by djpg
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To: Red Badger

Entropy is a bitch.


24 posted on 04/26/2019 10:59:18 AM PDT by nesnah (Liberals - the petulant children of politics)
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To: Red Badger

...and Leon's getting larger.

25 posted on 04/26/2019 10:59:54 AM PDT by BookmanTheJanitor
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To: Red Badger

The universe is just trying to run away from Soroznazi, hilLIARy, peLousy, Obama, and the Democrap anti-American anti- Christian, anti-Jew congresscritters. Or at least put as much distance between them as possible.


26 posted on 04/26/2019 10:59:54 AM PDT by faithhopecharity ( “Politicians are not born; they are excreted.” Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
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To: Red Badger

I’ll bet God does.


27 posted on 04/26/2019 11:01:12 AM PDT by laweeks
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To: Red Badger
If the universe is expanding, what is it expanding into?................

"This is too much!"

28 posted on 04/26/2019 11:02:19 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Red Badger

Well, technically there is nothing outside the universe for it to expand into. As far as physics is concerned, really we can treat anything beyond the Hubble distance as if it doesn’t exist either, since it can’t affect us.

Perhaps the universe is not expanding at all, but all the matter inside the universe is shrinking...


29 posted on 04/26/2019 11:04:01 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: Red Badger; dfwgator; Vermont Lt
The accelerating universe expansion is a YUGE argument for a Creator.

Anybody remember learning about the oscillating universe in school? The idea was that the big bang happens infinite times, matter and energy are always slung way out (universe expanding), the expansion slows from gravitational attraction and eventually reverses, then when all the matter and energy are all in one point again another big bang happens. Over & over & over.

That was the atheists explanation to science geek Christians when the Christians pointed out that a giant explosion would create so much chaos for a universe that seems to be so ordered like it was tailor made for advanced life to exist somewhere. Atheists: Well, then it must happen infinite times so that it's just right at least once.

Then the Hubble telescope was made and showed the universe's expansion is accelerating, not slowing down. Like the big bang was a one time event, not infinite times. Thus, the chaotic event just happened to sling out all matter and redefine physics just right -- the one time it happened.

30 posted on 04/26/2019 11:04:21 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: nesnah

Wouldn’t this be OUTropy?...............


31 posted on 04/26/2019 11:04:21 AM PDT by Red Badger (We are headed for a Civil War. It won't be nice like the last one....................)
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To: Red Badger

Billy Nye are you riding that bike again ?


32 posted on 04/26/2019 11:04:26 AM PDT by carmen2017
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To: Red Badger
If the universe is expanding, what is it expanding into?................

the divine realm

33 posted on 04/26/2019 11:07:23 AM PDT by mjp ((pro-{God, reality, reason, egoism, individualism, natural rights, limited government, capitalism}))
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To: Red Badger

Climate change ... duh.


34 posted on 04/26/2019 11:08:41 AM PDT by al_c (Democrats: Party over Common Sense)
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To: Red Badger
The universe is expanding faster than we thought, and no one knows why

They're trying to get away from Prog DemoRats.

35 posted on 04/26/2019 11:08:50 AM PDT by Navy Patriot (America NEEDS Mob Rule, another European and Mid East World War and a universal Draft)
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To: Red Badger

Well.....ONE guy knows why.

But he’s eternal, omnipotent, and he ain’t talking.


36 posted on 04/26/2019 11:08:53 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Red Badger

The question is what are they fleeing?


37 posted on 04/26/2019 11:09:10 AM PDT by DannyTN
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To: SunkenCiv

*ping*


38 posted on 04/26/2019 11:12:25 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj
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To: Red Badger

God hasn’t retired yet?


39 posted on 04/26/2019 11:13:59 AM PDT by Mathews (Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV), Luke 22:36 (NIV))
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To: Red Badger
Yskko's Universe song
40 posted on 04/26/2019 11:14:06 AM PDT by DannyTN
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