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Space

Something is seriously wrong with our understanding of the cosmos

By Leah Crane

11 July 2019

The universe

The Hubble constant may not be that constant after all

ABELL 370

Something is wrong with the expansion of the universe. Nearby galaxies seem to be moving away from one another too fast, we don’t know why, and every new set of data just seems to make the problem worse.

We have two basic ways to measure the expansion of the universe, which is described by a number called the Hubble constant. The two methods have always returned clashing results, and many astronomers and cosmologists hoped that one of them was simply wrong. Now, a third independent method…

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