3 Dec 2025
The measurements no longer fit the theory: Scientists at LMU have made significant progress toward finding out whether these discrepancies can be cleared up, or whether they are rooted in more fundamental problems.
There was a time when the Andromeda Nebula was the end of the Universe. At least, a number of astronomers in the early 20th century still thought that fuzzy objects in the night sky – such as the Andromeda Nebula – were part of our Milky Way, and that our Galaxy was all there was to the Universe. Other researchers saw the nebulae as distant stellar islands, believed that the space in-between was barren and empty – and held the Universe to be considerably bigger. Observation data were unable to clear the matter up: Back then, it was not possible to measure the distance to the stars. Today, we know that the Andromeda Nebula is a separate galaxy that is 2.5 million light years away.
And today, we also have high-resolution telescopes – terrestrial and space-based models – that supply ever more precise data. Moreover, we have long since had an established model, known as the Standard Model, that describes the development of our universe. Notwithstanding, Daniel Grün, a cosmologist at LMU, has this to say: “There is something wrong with the Universe. Or at least with our idea of how it might work.”