THE CASE FOR A HUBBLE CONSTANT OF 30 KM S(-1) MPC(-1)

Although recent determinations of the distance to the Virgo cluster ba sed on Cepheid variable stars represent an important step in pinning d own the Hubble constant, after 65 years a definitive determination of the Hubble constant still eludes cosmologists. At present, most of the observational determinations place the Hubble constant between 40 and 90 kilometers per second per megaparsec (km s(-1) Mpc(-1)). The case is made here for a Hubble constant that is even smaller than the lower bound of the accepted range on the basis of the great advantages, all theoretical in nature, of a Hubble constant of around 30 kilometers p er second per megaparsec. Such a value for the Hubble cures all of the ills of the current theoretical orthodoxy, that is, a spatially flat universe composed predominantly of cold dark matter.