In early 2017, the Royal Astronomical Society released new data which suggests that the universe may be expanding at a more rapid rate than scientists previously believed. This new data comes from the H0LiCOW collaboration, under the leadership of astronomer Dr. Sherry Suyu, whose team developed a measure of the universe’s expansion known as the Hubble constant.
Using a combination of telescopes, some on Earth and some in space, the collaboration measured the Hubble constant by evaluating the gravitational lensing of several distant galaxies. The process measures light as it travels from a distant source and bends around massive galaxies, which distorts the original emissions. These distortions cause various delays in the arrival of the light to Earth, and scientists use such delays to evaluate the rate of expansionist movement.