Measuring the Expansion Rate of the Universe
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Read the news release: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2022/news-2022-005
Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Video imagery:
- Fly-through Hubble Ultra Deep Field (2004): NASA, ESA, HUDF Team (STScI)
- 36 galaxies imaged by Hubble: Science credit: NASA, ESA, Adam G. Riess (STScI, JHU). See this webpage for links to information on individual galaxies: https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2022/005/01G2QPYPZ2G727EYMR73J7T4GV
- Repeat above Fly-through Hubble Ultra Deep Field
Writer: Leah Ramsay
Designer: Leah Hustak, Joseph Olmsted
Science review: Dr. Quyen Hart
Education review: Jim Manning
Music from Music for Non-Profits
Measuring the Expansion Rate of the Universe
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Photos of nebulas, galaxies, planets and star systems.
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Text, News From the Universe.
June 17, 2022, Measuring the expansion rate of the universe.
For nearly 30 years, astronomers have used NASA's Hubble Space telescope to narrow down the rate of the universe's expansion. We slowly make our way through space, passing various planets and star systems along the way. Text, The expansion rate tells us the universe's age and also what its future may look like.
These galaxies, captured by Hubble, all host stars or supernovas that astronomers use to measure distance and velocity.
When Hubble launched in 1990, the expansion rate was so uncertain that the universe could be as young as 8 billion years, or as old as 20 billion years. Numerous photos of supernovas.
Text, Using Hubble, astronomers have narrowed their uncertainty on the expansion rate to 1%. The universe is now understood to be 13.8 billion years old.
And astronomers predict that space will double in size in 10 billion years.
However, the precise Hubble studies do not align with equally careful measurements of the universe's microwave radiation.
Solving the discrepancy between measures of the expansion rate and the implications for science are a continuing mission for the next generation of telescopes.
This news was brought to you in part by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.