Since the 1990s, because of what the elite sees Hubble Space Telescope (HST), astronomers have pondered the mystery of the universe’s expansion. Although scientists have known about this since the late 1920s and early 30s, images obtained by HubbleThe Ultra Deep Fields campaign revealed that expansion has been accelerating for the past six billion years! This led scientists to reconsider Einstein’s theory that there is an unknown force in the universe that “locks in the force of gravity,” which he called the Cosmological Constant. To astronomers and astronomers today, this energy is known as “Dark Energy.”
However, not everyone is sold on the idea of Dark Energy, and some believe that the expansion of the universe may mean that there is something wrong with our understanding of gravity. Soon, scientists will benefit from next-generation telescopes to provide new insights into this amazing force. This includes ESAs Euclid mission, which is expected to be launched this July, by NASA Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (RST), a direct successor Hubble which will launch in May 2027. Once operational, the space observatory will scan these competing ideas to see what’s available.
Not Too Late
The expansion of the universe was discovered by the Belgian astronomer Georges Lemaître in 1927 and in vain by Edwin Hubble in 1929. This discovery started a debate about the creation of the Universe and whether every galaxy came from a single event (aka. The Big Bang Theory). or new galaxies were added over time (Steady State Hypothesis). The debate was resolved with the discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the “radiation relic” of the Big Bang, and instruments that allowed astronomers to look deep into space (and therefore, back in time).
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Over time, astronomers and astronomers were able to put greater constraints on the rate at which the universe is expanding – called the Hubble Constant (or Hubble-Lemaître Constant). But by the 1990s, observations of type Ia supernovae (used to measure the distance of the universe) revealed that the rate began to increase about 8 billion years after the Big Bang. This contradicts the widely held idea that the expansion of the universe would slow down over time as gravity slows it down, causing the universe to contract — possibly ending the “Big Crunch.”
At this time, the rate of diffusion became known as the Hubble-Lemaître Law (or Hubble-Lemaître Constant). The fact that it has progressed over time indicates that something is working against gravity (Dark Energy) or that our understanding of how gravity works on very large scales is incomplete. For more than a century, scientists have looked to Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity to explain this, but the expansion of the universe has led scientists to propose other theories – such as Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND).
Jason Rhodes, senior research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and deputy scientist for the Roman project, is also the US lead for Euclid. As explained in a recent NASA article:
“Twenty-five years after its discovery, the rapid expansion of the Universe remains one of the greatest mysteries in astronomy. With these upcoming telescopes, we will measure Dark Energy in a different way and with greater precision than ever before, opening a new era of research into this mystery. “
Two Observatories
Roman and Euclid have provided different streams of data to fill the gaps in our understanding, hopefully unlocking what makes the universe go faster. This will begin with both detectors studying the mass of objects using a technique called “weak gravitational lensing,” where the presence of large objects in the foreground bends and magnifies light from distant objects. This phenomenon is predicted by General Relativity, which explains how the curvature of space-time is altered in the presence of gravity.
In this case, the observations will focus on visible phenomena caused by very unstable masses, such as dark matter strings. This data will be used to create a 3D map of Dark Matter, which is said to make up about 85% of the known matter in the Universe and is what holds galaxies and galaxy clusters together. By mapping Dark Matter, this map will provide information about the repulsive forces that govern our universe as the gravitational force of Dark Matter counteracts the gravitational force of Dark Energy.
The two missions will also study how the galaxy has changed from one era to the next. By studying the local Universe, astronomers have seen an example of how galaxies are distributed, where each galaxy is twice as likely to have a neighboring galaxy within a distance of 500 million light years. This distance has increased over time due to the expansion of space, meaning that this “love distance” has also changed. Observing how this has changed over time will reveal the history of the universe’s expansion and allow more accurate tests of gravity to determine whether Dark Energy or MOND is at work.
Roman will also conduct additional research on Type Ia supernovae and study how quickly they appear to leave us. By comparing the speed at which they return at different distances, scientists will have another way to follow the expansion of the universe and to clarify whether and how the power of Dark Energy has changed over time. They will use different but complementary methods to achieve this and will be stronger together than they would be alone.
Euclid will rely on optical and infrared instruments to survey an area measuring about 15,000 square degrees (about one-third the area) – much larger than the area that Roman observed. It will look back 10 billion years, about 3 billion years after the Big Bang, when the Universe was expanding more slowly than it is today. During this time, Roman will study an area of 2,000 square degrees (one-twentieth of the night sky) but in depth and detail. Using his advanced optical and infrared capabilities, Roman will visualize what the universe looked like 2 billion years after the Big Bang.
This will allow Hubble’s successor to see galaxies formed during the Cosmic Dawn, something the James Webb Space Telescope recently did for the first time. And while the Euclid mission will focus on astronomy, RST will look at nearby galaxies, stars, and the outer Solar System. These studies will combine, allowing scientists to see the “big picture” of the universe while at the same time gaining more and more detailed information about places and things. This will also allow corrections to be made to Euclid’s analysis, which can be applied to many areas.
The result will not only increase the revolution, because it will solve the current mysteries of cosmology and physics. Based on their findings, Roman and Euclid can prove that General Relativity and the main model of the cosmos – the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) model – are correct. On the other hand, they can prove that our models need to be changed and point the way to a big decision. Then either confirm or disagree. Either way, we can’t lose!
Further reading: NASA
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