LINK Why Cosmology's Expanding Universe Controversy Is An Even Bigger Problem Than You Realize
The question of how quickly the Universe is expanding is one that has troubled astronomers and astrophysicists since we first realized that cosmic expansion was a necessity. While it's incredibly impressive that two completely independent methods yield answers that are close to within less than 10%, the fact that they don't agree with each other is troubling.
If the distance ladder group is in error, and the expansion rate is truly on the low end and near 67 km/s/Mpc, the Universe could fall into line. But if the cosmic microwave background group is mistaken, and the expansion rate is closer to 73 km/s/Mpc, we just may have a crisis in modern cosmology.
The Universe cannot have the dark matter density and initial fluctuations that such a value would imply. Until this puzzle is resolved, we must be open to the possibility that a cosmic revolution may be on the horizon.
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Yikes so I do not understand this as I'm not an astrophysicist. So my question to you is this: this cosmic revolution will happen no matter what we do or not do? And I guess another question is isn't this thousands of years into the future?
AmelieMatisse
Level 8
June 28, 2018
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I don't think you have anything to fear, AmelieMatisse (great name, btw). The crisis is in academic thinking, not the actual state of the universe.
I mentioned this conversation to a friend who suggested an alternative response.
""we're looking at an imminent invasion of the ruling lizards from the next galaxy over so they can enslave us and get us to mine our dark matter so it can power their inter dimensional space craft. Revolution is our only hope to survive"
@Schmunzie but perhaps the ruling lizards would be better than what we have?
" this cosmic revolution will happen no matter what we do or not do" is a statement, not a question.... The answer to the first question then is no, Schmunzie supplied the explanation.
@zblaze well slap my fingers with the ruler for making that egregious error of questioning something by making a statement as opposed to asking it in the form of a question. Pardon my Valley Girl slip into incorrect use of the English language.
@AmelieMatisse Regardless of the language you use, a statement is not "questioning something". Putting a question mark at the end of a sentence does not make the sentence a question.
Even if I considered it an "egregious error", which I do not, I certainly wouldn't slap your fingers with a ruler.
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