The NEW Crisis in Cosmology

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to

↓ More info below ↓

I have good news and bad news. Bad news first: two years ago we reported on the Crisis in Cosmology. Since then, it’s only gotten worse. And actually, the good news is also that the crisis in cosmology has actually gotten worse, which means we may be onto something!

The most exciting thing for any scientist is when something they thought they knew turns out to be wrong. So it’s no wonder that many cosmologists are starting to get excited by what has become known as the Hubble tension, or the crisis in cosmology. The “crisis” is the fact that we have two extremely careful, increasingly precise measurements of how fast the universe is expanding which should agree with each other, and yet they don’t.

Original Crisis in Cosmology

Sabine Hossenfelder's episode "Do we travel through time at the speed of light?"

Check out the Space Time Merch Store

Sign up for the mailing list to get episode notifications and hear special announcements!

Hosted by Matt O'Dowd

Written by Matt Caplan & Matt O'Dowd

Graphics by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini, Pedro Osinski, Adriano Leal & Stephanie Faria

GFX Visualizations: Katherine Kornei

Directed by Andrew Kornhaber

Assistant Producer: Setare Gholipour

Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber

Standard Candle Definition

End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg

Special Thanks to Our Patreon Supporters

Big Bang

Rick DeWitt

Sandy Wu

Matthew Miller

Brodie Rao

Scott Gray

Ahmad Jodeh

Radu Negulescu

Alexander Tamas

Morgan Hough

Juan Benet

Fabrice Eap

Mark Rosenthal

David Nicklas

Quasar Supporters

Hank S

Christina Oegren

Mark Heising

Vinnie Falco

Hypernova

william bryan

Scott Gorlick

Nick Berard

Paul Stehr-Green

Leo Emerson

muON Marketing

Russell Pope

Ben Delo

L. Wayne Ausbrooks

Nicholas Newlin

Adrian Posor

Mark Matthew Bosko

Антон Кочков

Alec S-L

John R. Slavik

Mathew

Danton Spivey

Donal Botkin

John Pollock

Edmund Fokschaner

Joseph Salomone

Matthew O'Connor

chuck zegar

Jordan Young

m0nk

John Hofmann

Timothy McCulloch

Gamma Ray Burst Supporters

Andrew Macleod

Diana S

Douglas Drane

Ben Campbell

Lawrence Tholl, DVM

Faraz Khan

Almog Cohen

Alex Edwards

Nick

Ádám Kettinger

Sylvain Leduc

Anthony Kahng

MD3

Endre Pech

Daniel Jennings

Cameron Sampson

Pratik Mukherjee

Geoffrey Clarion

Nate

Darren Duncan

Lily kawaii

Russ Creech

Jeremy Reed

Derek Davis

Eric Webster

Steven Sartore

DrJYou

David Johnston

J. King

Michael Barton

Christopher Barron

James Ramsey

Drew Hart

Justin Jermyn

Mr T

Andrew Mann

Jeremiah Johnson

fieldsa eleanory

Peter Mertz

Kevin O'Connell

Richard Deighton

Isaac Suttell

Devon Rosenthal

Oliver Flanagan

Dawn M Fink

Bleys Goodson

Darryl J Lyle

Robert Walter

Bruce B

Ismael Montecel

Simon Oliphant

Mirik Gogri

Mark Daniel Cohen

Brandon Lattin

Nickolas Andrew Freeman

Shane Calimlim

Tybie Fitzhugh

Robert Ilardi

Astaurus

Eric Kiebler

Craig Stonaha

Martin Skans

Michael Conroy

Graydon Goss

Frederic Simon

Tonyface

John Robinson

A G

Kevin Lee

Adrian Hatch

Yurii Konovaliuk

John Funai

Cass Costello

Geoffrey Short

Bradley Jenkins

Kyle Hofer

Tim Stephani

Luaan

AlecZero

Cody

Malte Ubl

King Zeckendorff

Nick Virtue

Scott Gossett

Martin J Lollar

Dan Warren

Patrick Sutton

John Griffith

Daniel Lyons

DFaulk

GrowingViolet

Kevin Warne

Andreas Nautsch

Brandon labonte