19 votes

Is dark energy weakening over time? Why some cosmologists aren’t sure.

Posted by gpl
Tags: usa.az, cosmology, dark energy spectroscopic instrument, kitt peak national observatory, studies, energy.dark, universe, physics.astro, scientists, author.lyndie chiou, source.scientificamerican, paywall
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-evolving-dark-energy-worries-some-physicists/

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Title
Latest Dark Energy Study Suggests the Universe Is Even Weirder Than We Imagined
Authors
Lyndie Chiou
Word count
2324 words

4 comments

  1. [4]
    battybattybat
    Link
    The headline sounds a bit clickbait, but the article is really well written. I loved this passage: If anyone with the power feels like it, I’d suggest updating the title to something like “Study...

    The headline sounds a bit clickbait, but the article is really well written. I loved this passage:

    DESI’s data on galactic motions come from measurements of redshift, the stretching out of galaxies’ emitted light to the red end of the spectrum by the universe’s expansion. And its tracing of spatial distributions emerges from spying enormous bubblelike arrangements of galaxies thought to have formed from more primordial templates, called baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs). BAOs are essentially ripples from giant sound waves that coursed through the hot plasma that filled the early universe, which astronomers can glimpse in the earliest light they can see, the big bang’s all-sky afterglow known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The waves’ matter-dense crests sowed the seeds of future galaxies and galaxy clusters, while galaxy-sparse voids emerged from the matter-poor troughs. Combined with CMB data as well as distance-pegging observations of supernovae, DESI’s measurements offer a reckoning of the universe’s historic growth rate—and thus the action of dark energy.

    If anyone with the power feels like it, I’d suggest updating the title to something like “Study suggests dark energy’s influence on cosmic expansion weakens over time”.

    4 votes
    1. [2]
      gpl
      Link Parent
      Not sure I agree that’s a better title as it really is not the main thrust of the story I’d say — this article is really about the difficulties in explaining the observations rather than the...

      Not sure I agree that’s a better title as it really is not the main thrust of the story I’d say — this article is really about the difficulties in explaining the observations rather than the observations itself. Actually, one of the main points here is that the “dark energy weakening” interpretation is one of possibly many for explaining the data!

      I gave another stab at the title.

      5 votes
      1. battybattybat
        Link Parent
        Thanks, I like yours better. “Study suggests” was doing a lot of work there.

        Thanks, I like yours better. “Study suggests” was doing a lot of work there.

        3 votes
    2. cfabbro
      Link Parent
      Done. Thanks for the suggestion. :)

      Done. Thanks for the suggestion. :)

      2 votes