Spitzer confirms cosmological inflation

[Jackalope]

A team of astronomers, using NASA's Spitzer space telescope has confirmed cosmological inflation and has refined the error range of acceleration to 74.3 +/- 2.1 km/megaparsec (the Hubble constant).

Unlike NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, which views the cosmos in visible light, Spitzer took advantage of long-wavelength infrared light to make its new measurement. It improves by a factor of 3 on a similar, seminal study from the Hubble telescope and brings the uncertainty down to 3 percent, a giant leap in accuracy for cosmological measurements. The newly refined value for the Hubble constant is 74.3 plus or minus 2.1 kilometers per second per megaparsec. A megaparsec is roughly 3 million light-years. (*)

(*) A megaparsec is 3.26 light-years.