section_path: Observational evidence/Hubble's law and the expansion of the universe
section_name: Hubble's law and the expansion of the universe
paragraph_text: Hubble's law and the expansion of the universe
  
  Observations of distant galaxies and quasars show that these objects are redshifted: the light emitted from them has been shifted to longer wavelengths. This can be seen by taking a frequency spectrum of an object and matching the spectroscopic pattern of emission or absorption lines corresponding to atoms of the chemical elements interacting with the light. These redshifts are uniformly isotropic, distributed evenly among the observed objects in all directions. If the redshift is interpreted as a Doppler shift, the recessional velocity of the object can be calculated. For some galaxies, it is possible to estimate distances via the cosmic distance ladder. When the recessional velocities are plotted against these distances, a linear relationship known as Hubble's law is observed: v = H 0 D {\displaystyle v=H_{0}D} where
  
  Hubble's law implies that the universe is uniformly expanding everywhere. This cosmic expansion was predicted from general relativity by Friedmann in 1922 and Lemaître in 1927, well before Hubble made his 1929 analysis and observations, and it remains the cornerstone of the Big Bang model as developed by Friedmann, Lemaître, Robertson, and Walker.
  
  The theory requires the relation v = H D {\displaystyle v=HD} to hold at all times, where D {\displaystyle D} is the proper distance, v {\displaystyle v} is the recessional velocity, and v {\displaystyle v}, H {\displaystyle H}, and D {\displaystyle D} vary as the universe expands (hence we write H 0 {\displaystyle H_{0}} to denote the present-day Hubble "constant"). For distances much smaller than the size of the observable universe, the Hubble redshift can be thought of as the Doppler shift corresponding to the recession velocity v {\displaystyle v}. For distances comparable to the size of the observable universe, the attribution of the cosmological redshift becomes more ambiguous, although its interpretation as a kinematic Doppler shift remains the most natural one.
  
  An unexplained discrepancy with the determination of the Hubble constant is known as Hubble tension. Techniques based on observation of the CMB suggest a lower value of this constant compared to the quantity derived from measurements based on the cosmic distance ladder.