Why The Universe Doesn’t Add Up (And How We’re Going To Try To Figure It Out)

  • Released Monday, October 26, 2026
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For decades, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has helped astronomers measure how fast the universe is expanding. But as those measurements have become more precise, scientists have uncovered a cosmic mystery: the universe appears to be expanding at different rates depending on how we measure it.

Known as the Hubble tension, this discrepancy challenges our understanding of the cosmos and could point toward something missing from our current model of the universe.

In this video, NASA scientists Jennifer Wiseman and Julie McEnery explore how Hubble helped transform our understanding of cosmic expansion, the mysterious role of dark energy, and how NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will help investigate some of the biggest unanswered questions in cosmology.

For more information, visit science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Paul Morris: Lead Producer
Rob Andreioli: Videographer
John Philyaw: Videographer
Jennifer Wiseman
Julie McEnery

Music Credit:
"Enceladus" by Jonathan Elias [ASCAP] and David Ashok Ramani [ASCAP] via ZFC Music [SESAC] and Universal Production Music

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Credits

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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. However, please credit individual items as indicated above.

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This page was originally published on Monday, October 26, 2026.
This page was last updated on Monday, October 26, 2026 at 8:23 AM EDT.