Swinburne University of Technology
The Hubble Tension: How are we trying to solve one of the biggest crises in Astronomy?
Abstract:
The Universe is expanding! However, the two main methods we use to measure the speed at which the Universe expands disagree. Local measurements from supernovae explosions suggest that the Universe is growing faster than we would expect from observations of the most distant thing we can see: the cosmic microwave background. This disagreement in the Universe’s expansion speed is called “The Hubble Tension” and is one of modern astronomy’s biggest crises. Because if the expansion rates are indeed different, it indicates there is new physics we have yet to discover.
Dr Adam Batten is an Astrophysicist at the Swinburne University of Technology researching a resolution to the Hubble Tension. In this public lecture, he will take you through the two methods we use to measure the Universes expansion rate, what might be going wrong along the way, and what we are doing today to try and resolve this problem.