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.
I’ll have to remember to ask Him!.................
Scientists have preached about the Big Bang Theory as long as I can remember, the James Webb Telescope we are told allows us to see back in time to withing a few million years of when the big bang occurred.
To me this theory raises more questions than it answers, before the big bang, what was the universe, what materials were gathered together when the big bang happened, what caused the big bang, scientists offer a solution to something that is not scientific, a large mass of material we have no idea how it got there or why it exploded or even when it happened, but we know it did...
What if our universe is but one of an infinite number of universes all in different dimensions.
IMO, the answers to how the universe was formed and when are unknowable, unless you have a belief in a supreme being aka God or some power far beyond anything we can comprehend.
We can’t even explain the ancient history of Earth much less the galaxy or universe.
No one has a proven explanation of how the pyramids were built or why other ancient cultures have pyramid type structures of a similar shape and design, this is just one example of an ancient culture with some type of technology we have yet to explain, I read articles and hear from supposedly knowledgeable people that provide evidence of advanced cultures far earlier than current science says ancient cultures existed.
My point, we don’t even know how the Earth was formed and how intelligent life came about or even a reliable timeline of the development of advanced ancient cultures, much less trying to figure out the origins of the galaxy or universe.
“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. “
Hubble should take two aspirin and then call me.
Maybe instead of the EXPANSION being faster than predicted, it is that TIME flows at a different rate in various parts of the Universe.
We have defined ‘time’ and limited it, but the Universe may be under no such limitations.
Even the basis of our time travel theories stipulate that the faster an object goes, the more the time differential gap between it and some other object/place.
For instance, you travel faster than Speed of light from Andromeda to Earth. Time elapsed for you is 1 year and for those on Earth it has been 200 years (numbers not meant to be accurate, only for illustration). If it was 200 years for Earthlings, it was 200 years for the planet. First, it wouldn’t be in the location expected from a 1 year trip. Second, does that mean that it’s expected ‘expansion’ movement should be calculated based on 200 years or 1 year.
Would you then be out of sync with all objects in the Universe ? Would that difference be different for each object based on the object’s distance from your origin and destination point ?
This article (and THANKS for posting it) resembles Einstein’s remark that
‘The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.’
“we don’t even know how the Earth was formed and how intelligent life came about or even a reliable timeline of the development of advanced ancient cultures, much less trying to figure out the origins of the galaxy or universe.”
Agreed.
That is why I just point and laugh at the “follow the science” crowd.
They are the modern witch-doctors.
Here’s a fascinating thought.
If the Universe collapsed down to the size of our local cluster of galaxies, we wouldn’t even know about it for millions of years.
Consider this: They say that once we figure out the physics of the Universe, in an instant it will all change to something completely different.
AND, it has happened six times already.
Thank you for the response. I agree with you completely.
And now for something exactly the same. Monty Python's Musical Version: Monty Python - The Meaning of Life
Lyrics:
Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown
And things seem hard or tough
And people are stupid
Obnoxious or daft
And you feel that you've had Quite enough
Just remember that you're standing
On a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second
So it's reckoned
The sun that is the source of all our power
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at four hundred thousand miles an hour
In the galaxy we call the Milky Way
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side
It bulges in the middle, six thousand light years thick
But out by us, it's just a thousand light years wide
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point
We go 'round every two hundred million years
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, of the speed of light, you know
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space
'Cause it's bugger all down here on Earth
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