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.
Well, the universe is cooling, so shrinkage should be expected.
“One possible explanation could be the appearance of dark energy at some point long ago... 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.”
And what assumption is it that forces us in the dark matter direction? And how to we measure the expansion? Hint: They both have to do with the CONSTANT speed of light.
If you defy what we all “know”, and speculate that the speed of light may have changed in the past, or may be changing, you might explain the expansion rate discrepancy. It all depends on whether you are convinced the expansion MUST be constant, or not.
I do.
“Perhaps the universe is not expanding at all, but all the matter inside the universe is shrinking...”
Oh man! That’s good! I like that!
That’s like “What do they ship Styrofoam in?”
Look.
I, as in me myself and I - get the science and the difference in the field of observation of the two telescopes. THAT IS NOT A QUESTION FOR ME, nor is that my point.
My point is that particular article, the CNET artticle, does a poor of explaining “the discrepancy”, and from which direction it occurs. I KNOW from which direction between the two telescopes. CNET does a poor job of “reporting” on it.
Bingo. SOMETHING in those equations must be wrong. Or perhaps our measurement method is not just a little off, but absolutely the wrong way to measure.
Oh, okay. CNET isn’t exactly a ‘scientific journal’...............
AUE
Anthropogenic Universe Expansion
All the fault of small thinking nationalists like Trump
And if they are going to pretend to be a science journal, then they should at least do a better job of it. Since their audience is not dominated by scientists they should try to educate their audience better; and that does not require talking over their heads.
CNET is basically a techie-geek site.........Originally a computer hacker (builder not the current use) forum..............
Imagine that the universe is so vast that the part we can observe is less than 1% of it. Thus all we see are local phenomena. Imagine further that the entire universe is arranged in a magnetic flux. This flux is in the shape of a bar magnet and our section is on the curve, thus everything appears to be moving away. It will all rearrange in another trillion years and look stable.
That explains it and doesnt require all sorts of invisible matter or undetectable parallel universes to keep a dead theory alive.
I’m not saying that this is the case. How ever as an explanation it is certainly simpler and more understandable than some arcane riddle that requires a special scientific priesthood to interpret it.
Then, they appear to ignore the fact that these galaxies didn't move to their location at the same speed of light. If the light from those distant galaxies is really 13 billion light years away, then it must have taken them a much longer time to actually get to that location of a central big bang.
They do not know why? of course not. They do not know anything. Speculations and theories are getting more and more bizarre with very little empirical evidence for support. But by G*d it’s their theory and they are sticking to them. But they speak with such knowledge.
Ever since Obama, they wanted to get as far from us as possible.
Really, who knows why the universe is expanding. I know that we don't have 12 years before the planet is dead. Liberals been saying this since the 1970s.
This is simple.
The universe is expanding at the speed of light. Maybe Hubble is finally getting the picture........
“CNET is basically a techie-geek site.,,,,”
I know that.
I just have a hatred for modern “journalists” that goes beyond their usual political bias. Journalists of all stripes in my youth were better communicators than most journalists of any type today.
Uncontrolled inflation? It must be the Fed.
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