How fast is the universe expanding?
Scientists have known for decades that the universe is expanding, but research in the past few years has shaken up calculations on the speed of growth -- raising tricky questions about theories of the cosmos.
The rate of expansion -- known as the "Hubble
constant" -- is a central part of the quest to discover the origins of
the universe, with astrophysicists believing they are getting closer and
closer to the exact speed.
In 1998, two teams of researchers found that
the rate of expansion accelerated with distance, and that the universe
was filled with mysterious "dark energy" that has caused the
acceleration for 14 billion years -- earning them a 2011 Nobel prize.
The unit of measurement for the Hubble constant is kilometers per second per megaparsec -- which is three million light-years.
According to two different methods, the rate of expansion is either 67.4 -- or 73.
No comments:
Post a Comment