NASA's James Webb Telescope Confirms Humanity Got Something 'Seriously Wrong' After Making Scary Discovery About Universe

Every time it feels like the book of scientific discovery is about to close, a new chapter begins, leaving us in awe.

It's a reminder that the universe always has more secrets to unveil.

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A lot of the credit for these revelations goes to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which embarked on its cosmic journey in December 2021.

This marvel of technology has once again opened our eyes to something new, challenging what we thought we knew about the cosmos.

In the relatively short time since the JWST was launched, it's witnessed phenomena that read like a list of cosmic milestones.

This includes the birth of a star some 1,300 light years away, as well as a star nearing the end of its lifecycle.

Its ability to capture crisp, detailed images has allowed us to see galaxies, black holes, and other celestial bodies in ways we never imagined.

But the JWST isn’t just about snapping breathtaking pictures. Its contributions to physics have been profound, too.

Alongside the Hubble Space Telescope, the JWST has been instrumental in addressing one of the biggest puzzles in physics today.

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Published findings in the Astrophysical Journal Letters suggest that our understanding of the universe might need a major overhaul.

The puzzle at hand is the rate at which the universe is expanding, known as the "Hubble tension."

This term refers to the observation that the universe seems to expand at different speeds depending on where you look.

Last year, the JWST confirmed initial measurements made by Hubble in 2019, solidifying a theory that had long been debated.

Measuring the Hubble constant, which quantifies the universe’s expansion rate, can be done in two main ways.

One approach looks at the cosmic microwave background, the Big Bang’s echo, to spot tiny fluctuations.

The other method relies on observing Cepheid variables, stars whose outer layers pulsate, allowing scientists to gauge their brightness and, by extension, their distance from us.

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Between 2009 and 2013, researchers using the first method calculated the expansion rate to be approximately 46,200 miles per hour per million light years, or about 67 kilometers per second per megaparsec (km/s/Mpc).

However, a team led by Adam Reiss, a physics and astronomy professor at Johns Hopkins University, alongside Saul Perlmutter and Brian P. Schmidt, utilized Cepheid variables to probe the universe's distant past.

Their findings suggested the expansion rate is closer to 74 km/s/Mpc, significantly higher than the earlier estimate of 67 km/s/Mpc.

This discrepancy has thrown the field of cosmology into a state of exhilarating confusion.

Reiss stated, "With measurement errors negated, what remains is the real and exciting possibility we have misunderstood the universe."

Originally, some thought the discrepancy might be due to confusion between Cepheid stars and regular stars in Hubble’s observations. Yet, this theory has been debunked.

"We've now spanned the whole range of what Hubble observed, and we can rule out a measurement error as the cause of the Hubble Tension with very high confidence," Reiss elaborated.

He further remarked, "Combining Webb and Hubble gives us the best of both worlds. We find that the Hubble measurements remain reliable as we climb farther along the cosmic distance ladder."

This collaboration between the two telescopes ensures that our journey towards understanding the cosmos continues on solid footing, layering mystery upon mystery in our quest to comprehend the universe's vast expanse.