cosmic crisis

A Surprise in the Stars: New Study Measures Faster Expansion Recent observations have delivered a startling message: the universe appears to be expanding even faster than our standard cosmological model predicts phys.org. In a new high-precision study, a team led by Dan Scolnic of Duke University used the cosmic distance ladder method to measure how quickly space is stretching. They focused on the Coma Cluster of galaxies (one of the nearest big clusters) and analyzed 12 Type Ia supernovae within it—exploding stars that serve as reliable “standard candles” because their true brightness is known phys.org. By comparing their known luminosity to