{"id":19365,"date":"2016-06-02T19:14:26","date_gmt":"2016-06-02T11:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/the-universe-is-expanding-5-9-faster-than-astronomers-expected-hubble-team-finds\/"},"modified":"2016-06-02T19:14:26","modified_gmt":"2016-06-02T11:14:26","slug":"the-universe-is-expanding-5-9-faster-than-astronomers-expected-hubble-team-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/the-universe-is-expanding-5-9-faster-than-astronomers-expected-hubble-team-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"The universe is expanding 5-9% faster than astronomers expected, Hubble team finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_253131\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-253131\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-253131\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/hs-2016-17-a-web_print-630x410.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration shows the three steps astronomers used to measure the universe's expansion rate to an unprecedented accuracy. (Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Feild (STScI), and A. Riess (STScI\/JHU))\" width=\"630\" height=\"410\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/hs-2016-17-a-web_print-630x410.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/hs-2016-17-a-web_print-768x499.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/hs-2016-17-a-web_print.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-253131\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Illustration shows the three steps astronomers used to measure the universe\u2019s expansion rate to an unprecedented accuracy. (Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Feild (STScI), and A. Riess (STScI\/JHU))<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>New research from NASA\u2019s Hubble Space Telescope team suggests that the universe is expanding significantly faster than astronomers originally thought. The latest&nbsp;measurements indicate&nbsp;an expansion rate five to nine percent faster than expected.<\/p>\n<p>Nobel Laureate Adam Riess, who led the study, began searching for a more accurate calculation of the universe\u2019s expansion rate in 2005.<\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s astronomers compared the observed brightness of&nbsp;about 2,400 Cepheid stars and 300 Type la supernovae. They then compared those distances with the expansion of space, measured by light from receding galaxies. They measured the&nbsp;new&nbsp;expansion rate&nbsp;with unprecedented accuracy, reducing uncertainty to just 2.4 percent, according to NASA.<\/p>\n<p>The new calibration doesn\u2019t match the original expansion rate that astronomers predicted from the outset of the Big Bang,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we know the initial amounts of stuff in the universe, such as dark energy and dark matter, and we have the physics correct, then you can go from a measurement at the time shortly after the big bang and use that understanding to predict how fast the universe should be expanding today,\u201d Riess said in a NASA press release. \u201cHowever, if this discrepancy holds up, it appears we may not have the right understanding, and it changes how big the Hubble constant should be today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unclear why the universe is expanding so much faster than expected. NASA says it may be caused by dark energy pushing galaxies apart with greater or growing force. Another theory suggests that the invisible matter that comprises most of the galaxy (a.k.a. dark matter) has unknown properties. The space agency also hypothesizes that a subatomic particle known as \u201cdark radiation\u201d may be responsible. A fourth troubling possibility: Einstein\u2019s theory of gravity is incomplete.<\/p>\n<p>Astronomers continue to use the Hubble Telescope to observe the universe\u2019s expansion rate, aiming to reduce uncertainty to 1&nbsp;percent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Illustration shows the three steps astronomers used to measure the universe\u2019s expansion rate to an unprecedented accuracy. (Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Feild (STScI), and A. Riess (STScI\/JHU)) New research from NASA\u2019s Hubble Space Telescope team suggests that the universe is expanding significantly faster than astronomers originally thought. The latest&nbsp;measurements indicate&nbsp;an expansion rate five to nine [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5549,5550,4259,190,4895,21,5551],"class_list":["post-19365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-astronomer","tag-expanding","tag-hubble","tag-nasa","tag-science","tag-space","tag-universe"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19365"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}