Astronomers have used the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes to confirm one of the most troubling conundrums in all of physics — that the universe appears to be expanding at bafflingly different speeds depending on where we look.

This problem, known as the Hubble Tension, has the potential to alter or even upend cosmology altogether. In 2019, measurements by the Hubble Space Telescope confirmed the puzzle was real; in 2023, even more precise measurements from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) cemented the discrepancy.

Now, a triple-check by both telescopes working together appears to have put the possibility of any measurement error to bed for good. The study, published February 6 in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, suggests that there may be something seriously wrong with our understanding of the universe.

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22 points
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With the universe is not being locally real, and now this… Oh man. Exciting times for sure.

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15 points
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Yes, discovery is awesome, and this is some crazy shit— it’s just that I prefer that the the rules that govern time and space make sense, lol.

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26 points

It makes sense — we just don’t understand it yet 😀

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7 points

Fine

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10 points
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7 points

I predict bubbles warping time but not space, thus distorting the apparent speeds of objects we see through them. Star Trek taught me that anything is possible. 😆

And just imagine the new fields of math such a discovery would create…

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8 points

“I’m just going to round it anyways” - Engineering

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2 points

If something warps time, doesn’t it inherently warp space, and vice versa?

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6 points

With the universe is not being locally real

What do you mean by this?

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2 points
11 points

Sometimes popular science goes a bit too far. Entanglement of particles and the fact that hidden variables don’t exist does not mean that stuff is not “real”. At least I feel that is abusing the word “real”.

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4 points

eli5 this universe not real thing. i can never wrap my head around it.

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8 points

It’s as real as anything gets. What constitutes as “real” is more of a philosophy questions than physics question. Make up your own answer.

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