How fast is the universe expanding? This is what a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated to see if what’s known as the Standard Model of the universe is consistent with longstanding theories, specifically regarding how fast the universe is expanding. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the long-term evolution, and ultimately, the fate of the universe.
For the study, the researchers used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to measure what’s known as the Hubble constant (aka Hubble’s law), which is the current estimated rate that the universe is expanding. While scientists have long known that the universe is expanding, they have recently been challenging the Hubble constant, indicating the universe could be expanding at different rates than previously hypothesized. In the end, the team found incredible results regarding the Hubble constant.
“This new evidence is suggesting that our Standard Model of the universe is holding up,” said Dr. Wendy Freedman, who is a John & Marion Sullivan University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago, a leading figure in the Hubble Constant debate, and lead author of the study. “It doesn’t mean we won’t find things in the future that are inconsistent with the model, but at the moment the Hubble Constant doesn’t seem to be it.”
Going forward, the team aspires to use JWST in the near future to observe more galaxies in different regions of the sky, since JWST has 10 times the sensitivity and quadruple the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope.
What new discoveries about the Standard Model of the Universe will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: The Astrophysical Journal, EurekAlert!
Featured Image: Image of one of the galaxies observed by JWST, NGC 1365. (Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Janice Lee (NOIRLab), Alyssa Pagan (STScI))
