Most Precise Measurements of the Universe Suggest That Something Is Very Wrong

Researchers have found that the universe is expanding at an entirely different rate than previously thought. The discovery could undermine our current understanding of the cosmos. Researchers studied the light emitted from 1,550 different supernovae to study the composition and expansion rate of the universe. Their findings corroborate some existing theories regarding dark matter and dark energy, a hypothetical form of energy that behaves like the opposite of gravity. But at the same time, the study fails to remedy one of the greatest discrepancies in the field of astronomy: the Hubble tension, or the apparent mismatch between locally-measured estimates of universe’s expansion rate and the measurement derived from the cosmic microwave background. The new research suggests the universe is expanding at roughly 160,000 miles per hour, while previous measurements . . .