The Continued Discrepancy in the Universe's Expansion Rate
The Universe might be expanding event faster than we previously thought.
Astronomers have measured Cepheid Variables - stars that pulsate with a period related to their luminosity - in the Large Megallanic Cloud...
...to improve cosmic distance calibrations and to calculate how fast the Universe is flying apart.
But their results don't quite match measurements from the Cosmic Microwave Background - the afterglow of the Big Bang...
...they show that theUniverse is expanding a bit faster.
Repeated measurements suggest this discrepancy is not a fluke - making it an exciting development in cosmology.
New physics might be needed to explain the divergence - possible involving dark matter and dark energy.
Translated by Bethany Downer.