The “Hubble Tension” is Real and Has Now Surpassed the Important 5-Sigma Threshold

Posted by Guy Pirro 10/26/2022 12:28AM

The “Hubble Tension” is Real and Has Now Surpassed the Important 5-Sigma Threshold

The universe is 13.77 billion years old – or is it? The age of the universe is closely related to the so-called Hubble Constant, which measures the current expansion rate of the universe. A higher Hubble Constant means the universe expands faster and is therefore younger, while a more slowly expanding universe is older. The various measurements of the Hubble Constant have become more and more precise in recent years, but have revealed a puzzling observation: different experiments have given different values of the Hubble Constant and consequently different answers about how old our universe is. What is even more puzzling is that rather than converging on a common end value, these measurements seem to now be diverging. Something is not quite right. This discrepancy has been dubbed the “Hubble Tension.” In the latest findings, the tension has now passed the important 5-sigma threshold that physicists use to distinguish between possible statistical flukes and something that is real and must be explained. Reaching this new statistical level highlights the challenges for both theorists and astrophysicists and could lead to new physics beyond the Standard Model of Cosmology.


Comments:

Guy,


I enjoy reading the articles you post. Keep them coming!

Thanks Chris. Glad you enjoy the postings.

I like reading about astronomy and physics related topics and when I come across something that is really unique or unexpected, I share it with the Astromart community.

I guess you can consider it a peculiar pastime of mine, but I really do enjoy doing it.

From the supportive emails I get, it seems that folks enjoy reading them too and that is very gratifying.

Again, thanks for the kind comments.

Guy
Oh yeah, they're great!


  • eranbob [Robert Campbell]
  • 10/28/2022 10:09AM
Guy: Thanks for posting this!

I wonder if the Hubble Constant is not a constant after all? The two different numbers came from data at two different epochs of the Universe's timeline.

As far as the dark matter dark energy 'problem', what if there is no such thing, and alternate forms of gravity need to be considered? It's a bit counterintuitive that the vast majority of what exists in the universe we cannot see or measure, only its effect on matter at galactic scales we can see do we know it exists.

There is an interesting example. Before General Relativity was developed (and accepted) there was an anomaly in the orbit of Mercury using Newtonian mechanics. At the time, physicists postulated there was an orbiting body near the Sun that we could not see. They never found it, and it never existed, and when General Relativity was applied to the orbit of Mercury, the anomaly was resolved. A similar thing could be happening here, but I think it will take some unwinding, since the dark matter/energy paradigm is very deeply entrenched.
Thanks Robert.

I agree with both of your points -- They are very logical possibilities.

Hopefully open-minded experts are looking into both of these.

Thanks,

Guy