The universe is boom at an accelerated pace . However , the two methods used to establish the enlargement ratedon’t make the same numbers , which has cause many headaches for cosmologists over the years . It is quite a job .
To address the discrepancy , astronomers have been looking for alternative methods to establish the expansion pace . Now , a new method to do just that has used ajet of materialproduced by the first - observed neutron star collision called GW170817 . As thetwo neutron stars collide , they release a large amount of energy in the chassis of gravitational waves , which were detected by three observatories – the two LIGO and the Virgo – in August 2017 . This was the first clock time such an result was find and a gravitative wave signaling was spot with all three detectors . This allowed astronomers to triangulate the author to a pocket-size orbit in the sky and follow it up with regular telescopes .
By meld the gravitational wave information and the datum obtained from radio telescopes , they were capable to establish a measurement for the expansion rate . As reported inNature Astronomy , the team found a value of 70.3 klick ( 43.7 miles ) per 2d per megaparsec . However , the uncertainty is so big that it encompass both value at the center of the current latent hostility .
So what ’s the reward ? This method has potency because it is independent of the current example , which means it is not affected by premise we may have in our interpretation of the universe . It is also undecomposed for having only been ground on a single event . research worker approximate that 15 more case like GW170817 with radio datum included could possibly solve the tension in the elaboration rate .
The squad claims that between 50 and 100 GW without any follow - up watching could also do the trick . This is promising since LIGO and Virgo have find many more event since they restarted in April . They have even observe asecond neutron star collision , but unfortunately only two detectors were online at the time , so they could n’t pinpoint the event . Despite that , it look likely that more of these collisions will be found in the future .
