Arthur C Clark once said that any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. Today we have many technologies that would look magical to our ancestors. Maybe the Hubble constant (describing how fast something is receding from an observer and related to how fast the universe is expanding at different distances from a your position in space – estimated at about 70 kilometres per second per megaparsec or, for every megaparsec you are away from somewhere it seems to be moving away from you at an additional 70km per second) is not quite as constant or immutable as we think.
Maybe NORAD is not being completely honest when they say they altruistically track Santa’s progress – maybe they know he is using a form of warp drive to bend the space-time continuum to achieve what seems to be an impossible feat - delivering presents to the whole world over a single Christmas Eve – night prior to celebrations of Christmas, mid-winter or simply commemorate the birth of Isaac Newton, calculus prime and gravitational heavyweight! Reverse engineering such a warp drive would sure make space exploration easier.
Podcasts
BBC’s Inside Science – Hubble Not So Constant
Daniel & Jorge Explain The Universe – How Fast Is The Universe Blowing Up?
Cosmic Vertigo – Emptier Than Empty & Getting Emptier
Videos:
Hubble Constant Measurement Mystery
A fuller explanation The Hubble Constant: Relieving The Tension