Consensus is the universe was created in a colossal bang — called the Big Bang — roughly 13.8 billion years ago, and then began expanding. All signs suggest the universe is continuing to stretch out in every direction like an ever-expanding balloon.
However, agreement among physicists on the birth and life of the universe hits a snag beyond this point. The expansion rate of the universe appears to differ depending on how it's measured.
The way we measure universal expansion could be wrong, or something could be happening in the universe that physicists have yet to uncover — throwing their models off.
The latter might be so, according to a recent study published in the journal Physical Review D. In the study the authors propose a new kind of dark energy in the universe. When this new type is included in calculations of the expansion of the universe, you get results with more in common than before — reducing the schism in consensus.
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