At a meeting of the American Physical Society last Saturday there was a very interesting talk from Wendy Freedman the lead researcher of a group using JWST to investigate the "crisis in cosmology" aka the Hubble Tension. This is one of the biggest problems in modern astrophysics, where our two main methods for calculating the expansion rate of the Universe don't agree. But now, this collaboration are claiming that with their JWST data, the two values DO agree and they've solved the Hubble Tension. That's despite the fact that we've heard from one JWST research group already who claimed that their JWST data made the crisis in cosmology WORSE. So what is going on?! Long video to follow this week... #astrophysics #cosmology #hubbletension

‍ I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford (Christ Church). I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.


http://drbecky.uk.com
https://rebeccasmethurst.co.uk