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Over a century ago, astronomers Edwin Hubble and Georges Lemaitre independently discovered that the Universe was expanding. Since then, scientists have attempted to measure the rate of expansion (known as the Hubble-Lemaitre Constant) to determine the origin, age, and ultimate fate of the Universe. This has proved very daunting, as ground-based telescopes yielded huge uncertainties, leading to age estimates of anywhere between 10 and 20 billion years! This disparity between these measurements, produced by different techniques, gave rise to what is known as the Hubble Tension.<\/p>\n
It was hoped that the aptly named Hubble Space Telescope<\/em> (launched in 1990) would resolve this tension by providing the deepest views of the Universe to date. After 34 years of continuous service, Hubble <\/em>has managed to shrink the level of uncertainty but not eliminate it. This led some in the scientific community to suggest (as an Occam\u2019s Razor solution) that Hubble<\/em>\u2018s measurements were incorrect. But according to the latest data from the James Webb Space Telescope<\/em> (JWST), Hubble\u2019s successor, it appears that the venerable space telescope\u2019s measurements were right all along.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The research was conducted by the Supernova H0 for the Equation of State of Dark Energy (SH0ES) project, an international effort to eliminate uncertainties in the Hubble-Lemaitre Constant. The team is led by Dr. Adam Guy Riess and consists of astrophysics from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), John Hopkin\u2019s University (JHU), the NSF National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), Duke University, the \u00c9cole Polytechnique F\u00e9d\u00e9rale de Lausanne (EPFL), and Raytheon Technologies. Their findings were published in the February 6th, 2024, issue of\u00a0The Astrophysical Journal Letters<\/em>. <\/p>\n \n