May 12, 2020
THE PARADIGM ALWAYS SHIFTS:
How Heavy is the Universe? Conflicting Answers Hint at New Physics: The discrepancy could be a statistical fluke--or a sign that physicists will need to revise the standard model of cosmology (Anil Ananthaswamy, May 12, 2020, Scientific American)
Two entirely different ways of "weighing" the cosmos are producing disparate results. If more precise measurements fail to resolve the discrepancy, physicists may have to revise the standard model of cosmology, our best description of the universe."If this really is a glimpse of the standard model breaking down, that would be potentially revolutionary," says astronomer Hendrik Hildebrandt of the Ruhr University Bochum in Germany.Similar concerns over the correctness of the standard model have been raised over the past few years by two independent calculations of the so-called Hubble constant, or the rate at which the universe is expanding today. Those two measurements also disagreed, creating what has been called the Hubble tension.
Posted by Orrin Judd at May 12, 2020 12:00 AM