Astronomers measure universe expansion, get hints of 'new physics' (Update)
https://phys.org/news/2017-01-cosmic-lenses-universe-expansion.html
Astronomers have just made a new measurement of the Hubble Constant, the rate at which the universe is expanding, and it doesn't quite line up
with a different estimate of the same number. That discrepancy could hint at "new physics" beyond the standard model of cosmology, according
to the team, which includes physicists from the University of California, Davis, that made the observation.
The Hubble Constant allows astronomers to measure the scale and age of the universe and measure the distance to the most remote objects we can
see, said Chris Fassnacht, a physics professor at UC Davis and a member of the international H0LiCOW collaboration which carried out the work.
Lead by Sherry Suyu at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany, the H0LICOW team used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and other
space- and Earth-based telescopes, including the Keck telescopes in Hawaii, to observe three galaxies and arrive at an independent measurement of
the Hubble Constant. Eduard Rusu, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis, is first author on one of five papers describing the work, due to be
published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
