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correct me if im wrong, but didnt we discover (or at least think we did) that the universe is slowing down based on the dopler effect? I recall learning that somewhere.
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I don't remember that and I would have wanted to notice such a discovery (although that doesn't mean it didn't happen). You may be thinking of the discovery that the
universe is expanding?
It's always been a goal of cosmology to figure out the mass of the universe. This was the holy grail, and would allow us to figure out the "hubble constant". IE: Is the universe going to collapse on itself or expand forever.
Various estimates of the Hubble constant have been made over the years, some predicting a crush, some an expansion.
However the big shock came in 1998 when "q" (see link above) was found to be negative, implying that not only the universe is expanding, it is expanding at an ever increasing rate. Something is pushing matter apart over vast distances more strongly than gravity is pulling it together. WTF eh?!