The universe is very likely to double in size in 10 billion years!
This prediction is said to be the most accurate, with experts and astronomers limiting the expansion rate to an accuracy of just over 1%.
The Hubble Telescope is now focusing on one of its most challenging missions – finding out how fast the universe is expanding. The findings so far suggest that something unusual is happening in our universe, NASA it is said.
something unusual in the universe
NASA said there is a difference in the rate of expansion of the universe as it is around us and that observations just after the Big Bang, suggest “something strange” happening in the universe.
To understand the strange phenomenon, they are studying data collected by Hubble on a set of “milepost markets” in space and time, which can be used to track the expansion rate of the universe as they approach us. go away.
NASA said Hubble More than 40 “milepost markers” have been calibrated since their launch in 1990.
“You’re getting the most accurate measurement of the expansion rate for the universe from the gold standard of telescopes and cosmic mile markers,” said Nobel Prize winner Adam Rees of the Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
This discrepancy has forced scientists to reassess their understanding and start all over again. they are now waiting for the new James Webb Space Telescope To start sending data, so that they can go deeper to solve this mystery.
Hubble telescope
Edwin Hubble discovered that many galaxies outside our home galaxy, the Milky Way, were not stable and that the farther a galaxy is, the faster it appears to be moving away from us. This was what turned out to be the expansion rate of space, and Hubble studied these galaxies as landmarks or markers of space. The expansion rate is called the Hubble constant, a unit of measurement indicating that the universe has been getting bigger since the Big Bang.
The study of the expansion of the universe began in 1920 with measurements by astronomers Edwin P. Hubble, after whom the telescope is named, and Georges Lemaitre. Hubble said that galaxies outside of us seem to be moving away from us, adding that the farther away they are from us the faster they are moving away. Since then scientists have been trying to understand and measure this extent.
When the Hubble Telescope began collecting data, it was discovered that the rate of expansion was faster than the model had predicted so far. The model predicted a rate of 67.5 kilometers per second per megaparsec, but observations showed it to be around 73.
NASA says that given Hubble’s large sample size, there’s only a one in a million chances that astronomers are wrong because of an ominous draw.
Hubble Telescope findings
The Hubble Telescope is one of the most powerful space-based observatories that has helped scientists understand and solve many cosmic mysteries. In its 30 years of service, the telescope has captured more than 1.3 billion photographs of interesting events.
The findings are set to be published in a special focus issue of The Astrophysical Journal, which will reveal the completion of the largest and potentially final major update on the Hubble constant. The new results are more than double the previous sample of cosmic distance markers.
The observations have been ongoing since Hubble entered orbit, and they were enhanced in 2005 and again in 2009 after the addition of powerful new cameras to the Hubble Telescope. Nobel laureate Adam Reiss of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STSCI) and Johns Hopkins University led a scientific collaboration investigating the expansion rate of the universe, called SH0es, or supernova, H0, for the equation of dark energy.
Rees said, “The Hubble Space Telescope was built to do this using the best technologies that we know of. It’s Hubble’s magnum opus because it took another 30 years of Hubble’s life to double this sample size.” Will take.” The telescope studied 42 supernova milepost markers in space.