ASTRONOMERS may have to knock over a billion years off the age of the
Universe.
New observations of Cepheid variable stars in NGC4258, the only galaxy whose
distance is accurately known (see New Scientist, 7 August, p 25), nudge
the Hubble constant about 15 per cent higher—suggesting that the Universe
is expanding more quickly (Nature, vol 401, p 351). “It may require a
change in the age of the Universe,” says Eyal Maoz of NASA Ames in Moffett
Field, California, who led the work.
