Space & Astronomy

Major study confirms that the universe is expanding faster than it should

By T.K. Randall
April 12, 2026

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) This ongoing mystery concerns a discrepancy in the rate of expansion when calculated using two different methods when in actual fact both should return the same answer (if the standard cosmological model is correct).

The first method, which focuses on nearby space, determines the expansion rate of the universe by measuring the distances to stars, galaxies and other objects in our celestial neighborhood.

The second method, by contrast, relies on measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation to derive what the expansion rate should be today based on what it was in the past.

As mentioned, both of these methods should return the same answer, yet the first returns a figure of 73 kilometers per second per megaparsec, while the second returns a figure of 67 or 68.

This mismatch is usually referred to in physics as the Hubble tension.Recently, a major new study involving an international team of scientists aimed to develop a new framework for calculating the rate of expansion more accurately than ever before and to rule out certain types of errors that might account for the discrepancy.

The outcome of this study was indeed a more precise figure for the rate of expansion (known as the Hubble Constant), but which still showed the same discrepancy as before.

This suggests that something else must be going on to explain why the figures don't match.

"This work effectively rules out explanations of the Hubble tension that rely on a single overlooked error in local distance measurements," the study authors wrote.

"If the tension is real, as the growing body of evidence suggests, it may point to new physics beyond the standard cosmological model."

Source: Science Daily

Tags: Universe