One fundamental aspect of quantum theory--which describes how matter behaves at the scale of atoms, and general relativity, which relates space, time and gravity at larger scales --is that as light travels through space and time it should be disrupted slightly. In this way, Hubble should render only blurry pictures.

However, since Hubble pictures are clear, researchers say there might be flaws in quantum theory.

Researchers studied pictures of a galaxy more than 5 billion light-years away along with pictures of an exploding star 42 million light-years away.

All of the images were sharp, which means that the light had not been distorted in space from the source to the observer.

A separate study in which researchers analyzed galaxies some 4 billion light-years away yielded similar results.

The results shed doubt on two physical quantities, the Planck length and the Planck time, which are the smallest measurable units of space and time.

The Planck length (one trillion trillion trillionth of a meter) is the distance that a photon moving at the speed of light can travel during the Planck time: 5x10-44 seconds.

Below these thresholds, things should become fuzzy, and, in theory, light is below the Planck limit. According to some theorists, if time doesn’t become "fuzzy" beneath the Planck interval, several astrophysical and cosmological models, including the Big Bang theory, become questionable.

Other theorists say that while the new findings should be explored, not enough is known about light’s behavior below the Planck interval to draw solid conclusions.

Space.com April 2, 2003

Nature.com March 24, 2003