The Sloan Digital Sky Survey ( SDSS ) has published a innovational analytic thinking of the existence . Reported in23 newspaper , the oeuvre measure more than 2 million galaxies and quasars , bring forth the largest three - dimensional mapping of the population yet .
Although old observations had mapped the ( relatively ) close galaxy to the Milky Way and looked at the Cosmic Microwave Background ( CMB ) , with the latest onepublished last calendar week , there was a break in the information .
“ We know both the ancient history of the Universe and its late elaboration history fairly well , but there ’s a troublesome gap in the halfway 11 billion long time , ” squad leader Kyle Dawson , from the University of Utah , enunciate in astatement . “ For five days , we have work to fill in that crack , and we are using that information to allow for some of the most significant advances in cosmogony in the last X . ”
The map is our best understanding so far of the expansion rate of the universe since the Big Bang . The work confirm that the universe ’s expansion began to speed up about 6 billion years ago , bugger off faster and faster ever since . This elaboration is believed to be cause by a hypothetical substance cognize asdark energy .
“ take together , detailed analyses of the eBOSS mapping and the earlier SDSS experiment have now ply the most accurate elaboration history measurements over the widest - ever reach of cosmic time , ” append Will Percival of the University of Waterloo , eBOSS ’s Survey Scientist . “ These studies let us to connect all these measurements into a complete story of the enlargement of the Universe . ”
The expansion pace of the universe is given by a parameter known as the Hubble Constant . In this work , the team estimated that the invariable has a economic value of 68 kilometers per second per megaparsec ( a megaparsec is equivalent to 3.26 million light - eld ) . This stand for that if two galaxies are 1 megaparsec apart , they would appear to be moving away from each other at a amphetamine of 68 kilometers ( 42 Swedish mile ) per second .
This time value is consistent with measurements from the CMB but it discord with measurements of close galaxy , which produce a rate of about 74 kilometer ( 46 miles ) per second per megaparsec . Thistension in cosmologyis a job still in want of a resolution .
“ Only with single-valued function like ours can you actually say for certain that there is a mismatch in the Hubble Constant , ” say Eva - Maria Mueller of the University of Oxford , who lead the analysis to interpret the results from the full SDSS sample . “ These new mapping from eBOSS show it more distinctly than ever before . ”
The achievement is unbelievable and more is potential to occur .
“ The Sloan Foundation Telescope and its near - counterpart at Las Campanas Observatory will continue to make astronomic discoveries mapping millions of star and black holes as they change and acquire over cosmic time , ” Karen Masters of Haverford College , voice for the current form of SDSS , resolve .