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There appears to be some unknown feature of the universe that is influencing its expansion, scientists said.
New measurements from the Webb telescope – NASAthe most powerful space observatory – could help explain one of the cosmos’ deepest mysteries, according to the researchers behind it.
For years, scientists have been concerned about an unusual feature of our universe. It appears to be spreading faster today than in the past—and researchers aren’t sure why.
Now the Webb Telescope has confirmed those unexpected measurements, previously shown by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. This suggests that something unknown is happening in space, not an error in the measurements of that telescope.
This could mean that there are unknown forces at work in the universe, for example, or that there is a gap in our understanding of the cosmos that could require new physics.
“The discrepancy between the observed rate of expansion of the universe and the predictions of the Standard Model suggests that our understanding of the universe may be incomplete,” said Adam Riess, lead author of the new paper on the findings. “With two of NASA’s leading telescopes now confirming each other’s discoveries, we have to take this [Hubble tension] a very serious problem – it’s a challenge, but also an incredible opportunity to learn more about our universe.”
For decades, scientists have been trying to calculate what they call the “Hubble constant,” or the rate at which the universe is expanding. But recent research has caused “Hubble tensions,” or conflicts between the expected rate and what measurements show is happening.
The new research looked at the largest sample of Webb data, taken in its first two years, to confirm the telescope’s measurement of the expansion. They used three different measurement techniques, looking at galaxies that have supernovae and using them to check how fast they are moving.
They found that the new measurements are consistent with previous Hubble measurements. This rules out any inaccuracies made by the former telescope – and indicates that it is in fact something connected to space.
Instead, the researchers suggest that something is missing from the current “standard model of cosmology,” our accepted framework for how the universe works.
The paper reporting the findings, ‘JWST Validates HST Distance Measurements: Supernova Subsample Selection Explains Differences in JWST Estimates of Local H0’, is published in The Astrophysical Journal.