Article Posted on : - Jul 27, 2011

The 6df Galaxy Survey data, each dot is a galaxy and Earth is at the center of the sphere. Photo: International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research.

WASHINGTON (BNS): A new and accurate method to measure the fast expanding universe has been made by measuring the Hubble constant, according to a report.

According to Science Daily, a PhD student from The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Perth has produced one of the most accurate measurements ever made of how fast the Universe is expanding.

"The Hubble constant is a key number in astronomy because it's used to calculate the size and age of the Universe," the website quoted Mr Beutler as saying.

As the Universe swells, it carries other galaxies away from ours. The Hubble constant links how fast galaxies are moving with how far they are from us.

He analysed the light, speed and direction coming from a distant galaxy which can be easily measured.

“Till now, this has been done by observing the brightness of individual objects within the galaxy and using what we know about the object to calculate how far away the galaxy must be,” he added.

The 6dF Galaxy Survey was carried out on more than 125,000 galaxies with the UK Schmidt Telescope in eastern Australia.

The measurement can be refined even further by using data from larger galaxy surveys.