Universe expanding faster than earlier thought, Hubble data reveals

Scientists have long known that our universe is expanding, but new data from the Hubble Space Telescope show that this expansion is taking place much faster than previously believed, Digital Trends reports.

By tracking the movement of stars in a nearby galaxy, astronomers have calculated that the universe is expanding 9% faster than expected.

The expansion of the universe is described in a number called, appropriately enough, the Hubble constant.

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The previous value for the Hubble constant was 67.4 kilometers (42 miles) per second per megaparsec, based on observation of the early universe.

But with the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990, this estimate was called into question. Using Hubble telescope data, it appeared that the Hubble constant was considerably more than this estimate.

“The Hubble tension between the early and late Universe may be the most exciting development in cosmology in decades,” lead researcher Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and Johns Hopkins University said in a statement. “This mismatch has been growing and has now reached a point that is really impossible to dismiss as a fluke. This disparity could not plausibly occur by chance.”

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