What is the Hubble Tension?
2/26/20261 hr 5 min
There's a crisis in cosmology when it comes to understanding a little thing like the acceleration of our universe, aka The Hubble Tension. And in this episode, Izzie Clarke and Dr Becky Smethurst are digging into what this is and (trying to) explain the science behind it.
A huge thank you to our guests, (Nobel Prize winning-) Professor Adam Riess from John Hopkins University and Professor Silvia Galli from Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris.
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First 90 secondsSilvia Galli· Guest0:00
[instrumental music] There was a huge secret before the release of the data.
Speaker 20:05
We've had questions about is that expansion rate changing with time? How fast is it expanding? What does that imply about the future?
Izzy Clarke· Host0:13
Are we looking at, like, limitations of the cosmological model? [instrumental music] Hello, welcome to the Supermassive podcast from the Royal Astronomical Society. With me, science journalist Izzy Clark, and astrophysicist Dr. Becky Smethurst.
Becky Smethurst· Host0:28
Recently, the astronomy community has had a little bit of a shakeup when it comes to understanding just a little thing like the expansion of the entire universe. [laughs] Um, there are, are a few ways to measure this rate of expansion. But in recent years, scientists have been getting different results, which have opened up a big old can of worms when it comes to understanding our universe.
Izzy Clarke· Host0:51
You know, like no biggie. I mean- Mm ... so we are going to attempt to tackle the ins and outs of this. Um, this is what is known as the Hubble tension, and in this episode, we're gonna be digging into what this is and, you know, trying [laughs] to explain the science behind it.
Becky Smethurst· Host1:09
[laughs] And are we, uh, are we setting off the Nobel Prize alarm yet, Izzy? Woo, woo.
Izzy Clarke· Host1:13
[laughs] Woo, woo, woo. Uh, not for us personally, no. But we are- Oh. [laughs] ... for one of our guests. Um, so I can confirm, we have our first Nobel Prize-winning guest on the show. That's, uh, Professor Adam Riess, who studies the expansion rate with nearby galaxies. And I also spoke with the brilliant Professor Silvia