Implications and Significance
Ultimately, my finding is useful to the field of astronomy and cosmology as a whole because of the Hubble Tension. Amateur contribution is not about the highest quality data but a vast amount of good quality data. While the amateur astronomy community is beat by the accuracy of space telescopes or high-altitude observatories, they have tens of thousands of people around the globe capable of contribution. Additionally, with social media, amateur astronomers are becoming increasingly connected. Through organized groups, professional organizations, and educational institutions, large-scale data collection is becoming easier than ever before. Sites like the American Meteor Society allow anyone to contribute to meteor-related astronomical science. They explain that one of their goals is to “encourage and promote research activities of both amateur and professional astronomers." While this is not directly related to cosmological research, it is a great example of community-driven amateur astronomy.
As the 2030s approach, there are a handful of professional observatories from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the ESA that will begin operations. These may shed light on the Hubble Tension and give us answers to what may be wrong. To cite Adam Riess directly when I reached out to him last fall, “new observatories are coming online like NASA’s Nancy Roman Telescope and the NSF’s Vera Rubin Telescope, so we are likely to go from thousands of SN Ia to millions. This may provide a breakthrough.” Suffice to say, there is still room for amateur contribution, especially until those observatories start to release data. With such an ever-evolving scientific field, the amateur community must keep contributing as any one of us may be next to discover a groundbreaking idea in modern astrophysics, and it seems clear that it can be done from a backyard.