The Andromeda Galaxy, 2.5 million light-years from Earth, as shot by NASA. (Photo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/CC BY-ND 2.0)
Yes, the universe is expanding, and, well, maybe it is time to panic.
Scientists said recently that the universe is getting bigger so quickly that it's starting to clash with the laws of physics, according to Nature.
The expansion of the universe can be measured directly with the Hubble Space Telescope, which looks at how fast galaxies are moving away from the Milky Way galaxy.
Powered by dark matter and dark energy, studies looking at the expansion have tried to describe how exactly the two forces interact to make the universe bigger.
The biggest study came up with a model for predicting the universe's size at any given age, from hundreds of thousands of years ago to present day. But the present day findings usually conflicted with Hubble's direct measurements, though often within the margin of error.
But more recent measurements from the Hubble have made that yawning gap harder to ignore, and in the new study, released last week, scientists said that the universe was expanding a full eight percent faster than the model.
If the findings are confirmed, scientists said, it might be time to revisit the model, and potentially rewrite the laws of physics.