Nobel Prize Winning Scientist Says We May Have ‘Misunderstood the Universe’

The Hubble constant measures the rate at which the universe expands — or how quickly or slowly the universe grows. According to Riess, what physicists have long thought about an expanding universe may have been completely wrong. 

However, these different instruments have come up with different values. There hasn’t been a constant in expansion or measurement at all. This occurrence has now been coined the “Hubble tension.” 

With the creation of the Webb telescope, scientists hoped to finally put to bed the Hubble constant and its many problems. However, this didn’t happen.

This study was done from 2009 to 2013. During this mission, scientists analyzed the relic radiation that resulted from the Big Bang.

However, this mission resulted in different estimates from before — the Hubble tension. Each estimate was about 10% apart from the other.

For example, if this European mission is correct, then the universe is about 10% younger than scientists have long claimed it is. That would change some of the very foundations of what we all think we know about the Big Bang — and about the entire universe.

Some researchers immediately began to speculate that they needed to think more about the physics they knew — and perhaps change it. Others were convinced the instruments were faulty. However, now, with this new NASA revelation, scientists have realized that the instruments weren’t wrong at all.

Using two of the greatest and most powerful telescopes ever invented, they were sure to get an answer. They did. Though definitive measurements could not be found with other instruments, the Webb telescope proved the Hubble had been right all along. It hasn’t been emitting errors, as many thought.

“With measurement errors negated, what remains is the real and exciting possibility we have misunderstood the universe,” Riess explained. 

This quick growth of the universe has shocked many scientists. “We wouldn’t call it a tension or problem, but rather a crisis,” Nobel Prize-winning astronomer David Gross said.

That’s the question. The answer hasn’t yet been discovered, though theories abound. Scientists will likely next be working on solving this particular mystery.

Measurements were taken from five different host galaxies, including NGC 5468. This specific galaxy is about 130 million light years away from us.

Researchers using the Webb confirmed that the Hubble’s previous estimates were right. The measurements are all consistent with one another.

“We’ve now spanned the whole range of what Hubble observed, and we can rule out a measurement error as the cause of the Hubble Tension with very high confidence,” Riess explained. “Combining Webb and Hubble gives us the best of both worlds. We find that the Hubble measurements remain reliable as we climb farther along the cosmic distance ladder.”

Scientists also haven’t ruled out the Hubble tension. This new study only proves that the Hubble tension remains, as other instruments cannot find a definitive measurement with these telescopes.

Now that the Webb telescope has proved the Hubble right, much of what scientists believed in when it comes to the expansion of the universe has changed.

Dark energy remains a rather mysterious phenomenon, as there isn’t much known about it. However, astronomers believe this energy is a counterpart to gravity. It has the capability to exert negative pressure and stretch the spacetime of the universe. 

However, the hypothetical dark energy remains a constant for many in the science community. Some studies have even taken a look at both dark matter and dark energy.  

Scientists believe that dark matter pulls things together. Meanwhile, dark energy pulls things apart. 

“We’ve combed over the data,” co-author Dillon Brout said, “and can now say with more confidence than ever before how the universe has evolved over the eons and that the current best theories for dark energy and dark matter hold strong.”

“It certainly indicates,” Brout said, “that potentially something is fishy with our understanding of the universe.”

Now, researchers will look into how the universe’s expansion may have changed during the Big Bang. “We need to find out if we are missing something on how to connect the beginning of the universe and the present day,” Riess explained.

The European Space Agency’s Euclid Space Telescope could provide some answers in the near future. Launched in July 2023, this mission will look at how our universe has expanded over the course of its history. It will also look at how gravity, dark energy, and dark matter may have played roles in this expansion.

These new telescopes could be able to look at the cosmic distance ladder estimates that the Webb telescope has looked at. When this ladder is measured amid the afterglow of the beginning of the universe, the Hubble tension could officially be solved.