“ There is a bunch of people in this sector of astronomy and each and everyone of them hates everybody else’s guts”, the Harvard astronomer Mr. John Hucra had pointed out in his book entitled “Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos”.

Yet, some time ago, the Hubble telescope, made it to discern 770 stars along with 18 galaxies being at a 65 million light years distance from the earth. While working out the rate these celestial bodies had been receding in space, scientists estimated the “Hubble constant” to be 70. That means (after a series of mathematical equations) that the universe is 12 billion years old. This late release of the Hubble team findings has allayed the dispute for a while, but the conflict is still here. “The Freedman team has studied galaxies that are just 65 million light years far from the earth,” stated in the Newsweek magazine the Harvard astronomer, Mr. Robert Kirchner. “Yet, this is only 10% of the universe. “70” could be just the local rate of expansion, which differs from the one taking place further away or the one having happened in the past. But if, as observation of the super-novas indicates, the rate of expansion has increased recently, then the “Hubble constant” is below 70.”

THE HUBBLE CONSTANT

A figure, called the “Hubble constant”, was the main cause for the toughest controversy in the history of astronomy. This figure represents the rate of expansion of the universe. If, for instance, this constant is “70”, as indicated by recent measurements, the velocity in which the cosmos expands every 3.26 light years rises to 70 kilometers per second. The constant above, constitutes a figure of crucial importance to all sectors of physics, and if accurately determined, it will come up with the exact date the universe came into existence, and will provide us with answers to numerous cosmic issues, like for example whether the universe will ever determine its contraction, thus resulting to a “space and time disorder”, exactly the way it was before the Big-Bang. In his classic science fiction novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy”, Douglas Adams has a hyper-computer announce that the secret “of life, of the universe and of all things is…42”. Could that secret be 70? Given either the addition or subtraction of a few units, it could…

By Pashos Mandravelis.

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