richly up in Chile ’s Atacama Desert , miles aside from the sluggish glow of light defilement , the cloistered Atacama Cosmology Telescope is in select position to seek the sky for answer . The inquiry most of late on its mind ? The historic period of the universe of discourse , a cosmic quandary that can be answer in different ways , depending on how you evaluate the universe ’s speed enlargement .
A newspaper recentlypublished in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physicshas measure the rate of that expansion , called the Hubble constant , using the National Science Foundation ’s telescope in Chile .
The team find the Hubble constant to be 42 international mile per 2nd per megaparsec — significance for every megaparsec , or 3.26 million light - yr , the speed of the universe ’s elaboration increases by 42 miles per secondment . The number the outside squad of astronomers and physicists found , after 730 solar day of observation cross from 2013 to 2016 , was nearly the same rate as was previously reported by the European Space Agency ’s Planck satellite in 2013 .
Looking across the top of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope in Chile.Photo:M. Devlin, University of Pennsylvania(Other)
“ Now we ’ve come up with an answer where Planck and [ Atacama Cosmology Telescope ] agree , ” Simone Aiola , a researcher at the Flatiron Institute ’s Center for Computational Astrophysics and a co - author of the newspaper publisher , saidin a mechanical press spillage . “ It speaks to the fact that these difficult measurements are reliable . ”
There ’s a pretty big intellect it was deserving recalculating the constant : There are a few ways to measure the rate of the macrocosm ’s expansion , from which the age of the universe of discourse can be deduced . you’re able to measure the pace free-base on stellar thing near to us , like throb Cepheid star . you may also measure the expansion by look at the polarized light of the universe ’s cosmic microwave background , the most distant detectable radiation from the Big Bang , which is what the Atacama squad did here . This fuzzy light has variation in its polarization , enabling scientists to measure how far the luminance has travelled and how long that locomotion took . That ’s why understanding the pace of the universe ’s expansion matters : It changes how far the light went , and thus , the historic period of everything .
Here ’s the hitch : Those two ways of calculating Hubble ’s constant have come up with pretty different rates — one 2019 studycame up with nearly 46 knot per 2d per megaparsec , whileanother from the same yearfound a number that part the difference between the other two . Though the differences may sound little , the varying estimates mean a orbit of century of millions of age in ascertain how old our universe is . ( The high the constant quantity , the younger the universe ) .
A polarized image of the universe’s cosmic microwave background (CMB).Image: ACT Collaboration
The Atacama team ’s findings identify the universe ’s age at around 13.77 billion class . Our solar system , for comparison , is about 4.57 billion years old , and Homo sapiens emerge somewhere around 300,000 yr ago .
https://gizmodo.com/hubble-measurements-confirm-theres-something-weird-abou-1834339830
The differ numbers so far do n’t signify that any company is necessarily wrong ( though the team behind the new newspaper , work with dependable - firmness mental imagery of the cosmic microwave oven background than their harbinger at Planck , affirmed that the former team ’s math was firm ) . What it all decidedly means is that we ’re missing something when it comes to how the universe of discourse ’s enlargement work .
The disparity between local and distant measuring of the Hubble constant could mean that “ there ’s a problem with one of the types of measuring that we ’re not render aright , and therefore there ’s some kind of systematic problem with one measurement or the other , ” said Michael Niemack , an astrophysicist at Cornell University and a co - generator of the late report . “ The more exciting possibility is that there ’s something drop from our cosmogenic model . ”
The best may be yet to number for the Atacama telescope , which had its first Christ Within in 2007 and has the benefit of being on the flat coat , making it easier to manage than a place - based telescope .
“ We have yet to draw out all the selective information from the data we collected already with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope , ” Steve Choi , an astrophysicist at Cornell University and pass writer of the paper , pronounce in an email . “ I am promising that we will learn even more exciting physics about our universe with the coming experiments at the Atacama , like CCAT - peak and Simons Observatory , ” referring to two upcoming high - altitude lookout station in the desert . The scope in CCAT - prime was rename the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope this September , and it will look at a slew of cosmogonic features , while the Simons Observatory will focus its observational capacity on the cosmic microwave oven background .
Perhaps one political party measure the creation ’s age is look across something in their math — with the many known stranger of space science , and the stuff that ’s wholly unknown , it ’s possible . But according to Niemack , there just as easily could be something else in the premix that would explain the unlike number .
“ This might be a hint that we ’re just on the wand of discovering something newfangled and exciting that we have n’t get it on before about how our population works , ” he said .
AstronomyAstrophysicsmathScience
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