In the quest to unravel one of the biggest conundrums of the universe, NASA’s Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes tag-teamed to produce definitive measurements confirming a discrepancy known as the “Hubble Tension.” This puzzle is the fact that the current rate of the universe’s expansion is faster than predicted based on observations of the universe’s initial conditions.
For 30 years, Hubble has consistently measured an expansion rate that doesn’t align with predictions from the European Space Agency’s Planck mission observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation left over from the Big Bang. Some scientists speculated unseen measurement errors could be the problem, especially when observing more distant cosmic entities.
Galaxy NGC 5468, 130 million light-years away, is used to calculate cosmic distances and the expansion rate of the universe. (Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Adam G. Riess (JHU, STScI))To crosscheck Hubble’s accuracy, the Webb telescope observed extremely distant Cepheid variable stars that act as cosmic milestones. Webb’s exceptional infrared vision isolated these stars from overlapping neighbors that could have skewed Hubble’s measurements.
“Combining Webb and Hubble gives us the best of both worlds. The Hubble measurements remain reliable as we climb the cosmic distance ladder,” explained Adam Riess, who led the analysis at the Space Telescope Science Institute.
The new Webb data, spanning the full range of Hubble’s observations out to 130 million light-years, confirms Hubble didn’t capture erroneous data caused by long distances and cosmic dust.
“With measurement errors negated, what remains is the real possibility we have misunderstood the universe,” said Riess, who won a Nobel Prize for discovering the universe’s accelerated expansion driven by the mysterious dark energy.
The cosmic distance ladder observations by Hubble and Webb have firmly anchored the present-day expansion rate, while the Planck cosmic microwave background data represents the opposite. How expansion evolved between these endpoints is unknown.
“We need to find out if we are missing something on how to connect the beginning of the universe and the present day,” Riess stated.
Upcoming missions like NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and ESA’s Euclid could help settle the Hubble Tension mystery by uncovering the influence of dark energy across time and the universe. For now, the findings suggest new physics may be required to explain our reality.
Katie Nelson
Geospatial Ninja
(303) 718-7163
katie@apollomapping.com
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