Posted on 12/09/2024 10:59:26 PM PST by Red Badger
The James Webb Space Telescope (Credit: NASA)
The James Webb Space Telescope has confirmed controversial Hubble Telescope measurements that seemingly contradict the standard model of cosmology, giving rise to what is known as the ‘Hubble Tension,’ according to new findings involving the most extensive study of the universe’s expansion ever conducted.
Confirmation of the decades-long Hubble Tension, which reveals that the universe is expanding faster than cosmological models predict, has sent astrophysicists back to the drawing board in search of previously unknown physics that could account for the measurements, potentially rewriting the standard model.
“The discrepancy between the observed expansion rate of the universe and the predictions of the standard model suggests that our understanding of the universe may be incomplete,” explained Nobel laureate and lead author Adam Riess, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor and Thomas J. Barber Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University in a statement.
“With two NASA flagship telescopes now confirming each other’s findings, we must take this [Hubble tension] problem very seriously—it’s a challenge but also an incredible opportunity to learn more about our universe.”
The findings follow a March study led by Riess, which showed that the discrepancies found by Hubble could not be attributed to calculation errors. “With measurement errors negated, what remains is the real and exciting possibility we have misunderstood the universe,” Riess said at the time of that study.
James Webb Space Telescope Confirms the Hubble Tension
In 1929, Edwin Hubble published his first version of Hubble’s Law, which showed that galaxies seemed to expand faster the farther away from Earth they were. In recent decades, measurements from the telescope named for the acclaimed scientist helped confirm this theory, showing that the universe’s expansion rate was increasing.
However, unlike cosmological models that predicted this expansion should be around 67-68 kilometers per second per megaparsec (Mpc), the readings from Hubble showed a mean expansion of around 73 km/s/Mpc. Several attempts have been made to shrink this discrepancy enough that it could be blamed on instrument errors or other faults in the model. Those efforts have failed, leading to the puzzle called the Hubble Tension.
Based on studies supporting the universe’s accelerating expansion, Dr. Riess was part of a team that won the Nobel Prize for their research, which attributed that expansion to a mysterious “dark energy” permeating large parts of the cosmos. This latest study employed state-of-the-art instruments aboard the JWST to confirm the Hubble Tension and, as a result, confirm the likely existence of a form of dark energy.
The study employed three different methods to calculate the universe’s expansion rate, known to produce the “most precise local measurement” of distances between galaxies. The first method considered the “gold standard” of measuring cosmic distances, involved an analysis of pulsating stars known as the Cepheid variable.
This analysis included samples of Webb data from two groups unaffiliated with the study that work independently to refine the Hubble constant. One is from the SH0ES (Supernova, H0, for the Equation of State of Dark Energy) team led by Riess; the other is from the Carnegie-Chicago Hubble Program and other teams. The researchers say these combined measurements “make for the most precise determination yet about the accuracy of the distances measured using the Hubble Telescope Cepheid stars, which are fundamental for determining the Hubble constant.”
The other two methods used to check the Cepheid variable findings involved carbon-rich stars and the brightest red giants across the galaxy. As hoped, all three readings from Webb aligned nearly perfectly with those from Hubble.
“All galaxies observed by Webb together with their supernovae yielded a Hubble constant of 72.6 km/s/Mpc, nearly identical to the value of 72.8 km/s/Mpc found by Hubble for the very same galaxies,” a
ccording to the researchers.
Time for Theorists to Get Creative
Although the initial readings from Hubble have often been criticized due to the success of the standard model in other areas of cosmology, the team says that the JWST’s discovery of almost identical discrepancies with its more advanced instrumentation is a huge blow to critics of the Hubble Tension.
“The Webb data is like looking at the universe in high definition for the first time and really improves the signal-to-noise of the measurements,’’ said Siyang Li, a graduate student working at Johns Hopkins University on the study.
Of course, the new findings will not completely resolve the controversy. Still, the study authors believe that theoretical physicists may have to try again to make sense of the data using something other than the standard model, but that doesn’t violate physics altogether.
“One possible explanation for the Hubble tension would be if there was something missing in our understanding of the early universe, such as a new component of matter—early dark energy—that gave the universe an unexpected kick after the big bang,” said Marc Kamionkowski, a Johns Hopkins cosmologist who helped calculate the Hubble constant and has recently helped develop a possible new explanation for the tension but who was not involved in the new study.
“And there are other ideas, like funny dark matter properties, exotic particles, changing electron mass, or primordial magnetic fields that may do the trick,” Kamionkowski added.
“Theorists have license to get pretty creative.”
The study “JWST Validates HST Distance Measurements: Selection of Supernova Subsample Explains Differences in JWST Estimates of Local H0” was published in the Astrophysical Journal.
Well now that is interesting. In a computer game it only creates a visible world to you. Drive your car down the road and it generates new roadway and landscape while erasing what was behind you to free up memory. Point a telescope in any direction- bingo, new galaxies are projected.
“A mass in motion tends to stay in motion, unless acted upon by an outside force, so as they move farther and farther, the distance between galaxies on the outside edge of the Universe, increases at an exponential rate, like the spokes on a wheel.”
Would this then indicate that the Universe is also spinning like a Galaxy and centrifugal force is also affecting that mass as it moves further out on the spokes of that wheel? Honestly that would make a lot of sense and explain a lot. From our perspective how could we tell if the whole Universe is spinning? We would have to have something “outside” the Universe to have reference to detect movement. It could be but we don’t have that outside reference to indicate the spin moment.
Since everything in it is spinning, I would conjecture (that’s a fancy guess) that the Universe is spinning as well..........
Happens every workday, an hour before quitting time...............
“Since everything in it is spinning, I would conjecture (that’s a fancy guess) that the Universe is spinning as well..........”
I would agree. And maybe this is the missing factor in it all that just might explain quite a bit. I think you hit on something here not being considered.
Ever float down a calm river on inner tubes in a group? You can paddle back and forth between each other as if you are in absolute still water because you are all floating along with the current at the same speed. Against the current, with the current, across the current makes no difference from that local perspective, it feels like you are in still water. If you can’t see the bank moving you would never know or feel it. You are basically in a still pool but that whole pool is moving along.
Webb Hubble?
How Clintonian.
I watched a video the other day about how light speed cannot be measured without the use of mirrors. To measure it, it has to be shown at a mirror and then divide in half. The problem is the light speed to the mirror may be faster then the light reflected back to the measuring device. It was a fascinating video.
This is also why ‘Time Travel’ will never be practical as well.
Einstein’s Theory doesn’t disallow Time Travel, but if you actually did invent a machine that could, you would die within seconds of reaching your time destination.
Why?
Because everything in the entire Universe is moving.
Every second you are travelling thousands of miles, but you don’t notice because everything else is travelling along with you.
The Earth is spinning about 2000mph on it’s axis, 18.5 miles per second as it revolves around the Sun, 143 miles per second as the Sun revolves around the Milky Way Galaxy, which is moving 370 miles per second relative to the Cosmic Microwave Background.
So if you travelled back or forward in Time by just one second, you would find yourself in interstellar or intergalactic space with no way back............
All of that goes to:
Everything we think we know is wrong.
Killjoy!
I just shared about that concept in another forum. We need to consider the possibility of harnessing Quantum Entanglement when considering the space/time issue:
I think the key is in the ability to control and use Quantum Entanglement. It is the oddity Einstein could not figure out. They are just now proving this is possible. Quantum Entanglement is instant, it is not hindered by constraints like time or space. If harnessed something could travel from one place or even another time in the universe to another instantly. Everything is made of particles. If there was a way to take a group of particles such as a space ship with occupants, compress it all into a package like you would a compressed file folder, it could be instantly transported from one location to another across any distance and then decompressed back to it’s original state.
The concept of “distance” is no longer even a factor. An analogy would be like the difference between sending a computer file to the other side of the world or sending a letter to the other side of the world. The file is going to take just seconds while the letter is going to take a week or two. Why? Because the two computers on each end are already connected simultaneously in real time like Quantum Entaglement. So the distance between them is no longer a factor hindering the transfer of that data. The software and electrons on each end already exist and are already connected simultaneously to decompress and display that file. As to where because there are no real time connections a letter has to be physically transported from one carrier to another. This is the difference between space travel as we know it and space/time travel possibilities with Quantum Entanglement technology.
What Is Quantum Teleportation?
“JANNA LEVIN: When I say the word teleportation, what comes to mind? Maybe it’s the transporter from Star Trek instantly beaming the crew down to a planet, or the time-traveling TARDIS of Doctor Who. In science fiction, teleportation is an expedient device to deliver people from one place to another with no time wasted on the journey.
But quantum teleportation? Well, that’s something dramatically different — and entirely real.”
https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-is- ... -20240314/
Question for atheists: how can the universe have an expandable boundary?
QUANTUM EXPERIMENT:
Take a diamond crystal, doesn’t matter natural or man-made, nor does size matter.
Split it in two pieces.
Take one piece to the other side of town or the Earth, or the International Space Station.
Use a laser or other suitable directed energy device to illuminate the stationary piece you retain. Use Morse code or some pre-determined signal to initiate a message unknown to the other end.
Use a suitable detector connected to the other piece wherever it happens to be and see if any signal of any sort is transmitted and can be decoded.
If Quantum Entanglement is a ‘thing’, then you should be able to receive and decode the message at the other end....................
“If Quantum Entanglement is a ‘thing’, then you should be able to receive and decode the message at the other end.”
And you could, if ALL the particles in both packages end up paired with each other and entangled. Just physically splitting something like that will not make all the particles of one package pair and entangle with all the particles of the other package. It would have to be done with some pretty sophisticated particle level electromagnetism to end up with two identical entangled packages. And here is where “their” tech may be thousands of years ahead of ours making it possible for them but not even fathomable to us.
(For general consideration. I’m not expecting you to answer these questions. I quite agree with you on it being Infinite. Thanks for bringing up the issue)
The reason they claim the Universe (which I always understood to be defined as Eternal and Infinite) is finite because all celestial objects are moving AWAY from a central point, ergo that point would be the origin of the big bang and it has expanded to size xxx based on it’s age. It’s age is based on it’s size. Huh?
(Akin to aging the underlying layers of Earth based on the fossil inclusion, and the fossils age is based on the layer they are found in)
If all objects are moving away from a central point, where is that point ?
Since our only point of view is Earth/our solar system, we must be the center.
Red shift stars are traveling away from us. Blue shift stars are traveling toward us. Supposedly they should all be moving away from us. Which is based on observation with a time period of say several thousand years. But the Universe operates on a time scale that is 10’s if not 100’s of MILLIONS times larger. It may be that every 5000 years, the blue and red shifted objects completely reverse their direction. It is possible that mankind won’t even be around to see that kind of thing occur.
EVEN IF the Universe were finite, due to the supposed speed of expansion, and the limitations of the speed of light, we will NEVER EVER be able to prove it. Due to the size, the rate of expansion at the ‘edge’ has already exceeded the speed of light. We can never catch up with it.
IF we even COULD, what proof would we get ? Beyond the ‘finite’ universe, there would be NOTHING. No way to image it , no way to describe it, no way to see it. How would we know or prove it was there ? But it can’t be ‘there’ because it doesn’t ‘exist’.
Thus the dilemma of the ‘finite universe’ concept.
“attributed that expansion to a mysterious “dark energy” permeating large parts of the cosmos.”
Modern science loves plugging the equations with free miracles.
Lol.
Terence McKenna quote:
“Give us one free miracle and we’ll explain the rest.’ The one free miracle is the appearance of all the mass and energy in the universe and all the laws that govern it in a single instant from nothing”.
Follow the science and get beclowned.
Lol.
Only God knows for sure...
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