measurement

NASA has released a huge new report that astronomers are calling Hubble’s magnum opus. Analyzing 30 years of data from the famous space telescope, the new study makes the most precise measurement yet of how fast the universe is expanding.Astronomers have known for the better part of a century that the universe is expanding, thanks to the observation that galaxies are moving away from us – and the farther away they are, the faster they’re traveling. The speed at which they’re moving, relative to their distance from Earth,…

After a decade of meticulous measurements, scientists announced Thursday that a fundamental particle – the W boson – has a significantly greater mass than theorized, shaking the foundations of our understanding of how the Universe works.  Those foundations are grounded by the Standard Model of particle physics, which is the best theory scientists have to describe the most basic building blocks of the Universe, and what forces govern them.The W boson governs what is called the weak force, one of the four fundamental…

The world of particle physics has been on shaky ground lately. For years, researchers have been scrutinizing particles to make sure that the rules we use to explain the Universe hold up – with troublingly inconsistent results.  To add to the endeavor, physicists using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have now measured the heaviest known elementary particle with an unprecedented amount of precision.In a much-needed win for the Standard Model of particle physics – the set of rules that predict the behavior of all particles…