Dark energy may not actually exist, scientists claim

[steven johnson]

You know that mysterious force that's accelerating the expansion of the universe -- dark energy? There's a real possibility it doesn't exist.

The Standard Model of Cosmology, which describes the evolution of the Universe, begins with the Big Bang. Astronomers have recently observed that the galaxies are accelerating as they move away from each other, and cosmologists have sought to explain this unexpected acceleration by introducing the concept of dark energy, which permeates space, propels matter, and accounts for nearly 75 percent of the mass-energy in our Universe.
The new research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, is likely to be equally controversial as the work it purports to challenge especially as it relies on our galaxy being at the centre of the Universe - a concept that has been generally disregarded in modern science.




Dark energy may not actually exist, scientists claim

We're saying there isn't any acceleration. The galaxies are displaced from where they're supposed to be because we're in the aftermath of a wave that put those galaxies in a slightly different position."
Ripples in a pond
Temple compared the wave to what happens when you throw a rock into a pond. In this case, the rock would be the Big Bang, and the concentric ripples that result are like a series of waves throughout the universe. Later on, when the first galaxies start to form, they are forming inside space-time that has already been displaced from where it would have been without the wave.
For the universe to appear to be accelerating at the same rate in all directions, we in the Milky Way would have to be near a local center, at the spot where an expansion wave was initiated early in the Big Bang when the universe was filled with radiation.
Temple concedes that this is a coincidence, but said it's possible that we are merely in the center of a smaller wave that affects the galaxies we can see from our vantage point - we need not be in the center of the entire universe for the idea to work.



'Big Wave' Theory Offers Alternative to Dark Energy

The work suggests that our home galaxy sits inside a vast region of space in which there's an unusually low density of matter due to a post-big bang wave that swept through the universe.
From our viewpoint, other galaxies outside this region appear to have moved farther away than expected, when really they're right where they should be.


Dark Energy's Demise? New Theory Doesn't Use the Force

[Botany]

1. please

[Mojambo]

2. So wait a minute. Bob Novak dies and suddenly there's no dark energy? n/t

[oldtime dfl_er]

3. OMG

I thought I was gonna be so clever posting the same thing! It took you less than a minute to beat me to it. LOL

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Metta]

6. Right, they've obviously overlooked Republicans.

:toast:

[laconicsax]

18. LOL

:spray:

[IndianaGreen]

29. +1 rec

Very clever post, Mojambo!

Good and fascinating OP.

[tridim]

4. So it's either dark energy or Warp Drive theory.

Both possibilites are pretty damn cool. Maybe they're the really the same thing? Waves are energy.

Honestly, I don't think we know as much as we think we do. Yet.

[Poll_Blind]

5. I love crazy shit like this. I gave up fiction over ten years ago just because....

...it couldn't hold a candle to reality. Not by a long shot. I remember reading a Scientific American issue a few years ago (the one dedicated to Einstein, FWIW) where one of the articles spoke about the reason for the balance (or imbalance, in regards to the weakness of the gravitational force) among the fundamental forces in the Universe might be due to the extra-dimensional topology that our Universe had "rolled down" after possibly bumping another Universe (Read: Brane) which kicked off the Big Bang.

Or something like that. I mean, Jaysus!

Who needs to smoke a spliff to get wild ideas? Some of the wildest, most-exotic ones are in science magazines!

And if you ever do catch me smoking a spliff- it's because I couldn't get to a copy of SciAm fast enough*.

PB

* The bus drivers never buy this.

[DavidDvorkin]

7. There's rather more to fiction than wild ideas

Nifty though those are.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Poll_Blind]

13. Only on DU could I post a message, supporting the OP of a non-controversial topic...

...and come back home a few hours later to see like at least three deleted messages linked to it. Of all the things that happen on DU, I think the kind of confusion and curiosity I have about what exactly transpired in the interim is, seriously, right up there.

It's like leaving a $1 bill on a bus-stop bench and coming back three hours later to find the $1 bill, the entire bench and the bus stop shelter covered in motherfucking blood. With like scrabbling bloody hand-prints and shit apparently showing that, although they tried desperately to get away, there were no survivors.

So I go back and I read my message, wondering if I had Tourettes or something and just started cursing in the middle of what I was typing. I've read at least one Oliver Sacks book- anything's possible. So as I'm reading through my message again, I'm thinking "Ok, anything offensive here? Is there cursing? Does this sentence look like it's the result of a cerebral event?"

Nada.

Then I'm thinking, "Shit, because I brought up weed did this start some sort of ugly pro/con Marijuana debate?!?"

Was it a "People who've been molested or beaten by writers, editors or rolled-up copies of Scientific American" thing? Was scientific American run or founded by Operation Paperclip Nazis or something I didn't know?

Of all the forums I've ever been to, I've only ever seen this "Mary Celeste" effect on DU. It's not like it happens much, but enough I've had it happen a couple dozen times over the years and years I've been posting here.

And it never gets less odd.

PB

[comtec]

14. HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

OMFG I LOL'dD

I do my level best not to burst out laughing at work but this one was impossible not to Laugh at.

How do you Rec a post for a DUzy? :)

[caraher]

21. Sadly, the truth is boring. I alerted the mods...

Someone who registered yesterday and was up to 20 posts when I noticed it was simply spamming the thread with links to miscellaneous, unrelated rubbish ("Paris Hilton nude!" and the like)

Why they targeted *THIS* thread is beyond me...

[moggie]

22. Perhaps they think Paris Hilton nude causes expansion

Actually, if it was a spambot it probably picked threads at random.

[centristgrandpa]

26. it does for me...

:evilgrin:

[Veruca Salt]

28. I would totally second the DUzy rec.

That was a brilliant post.

[qazplm]

15. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN KILLED MY GRANDFATHER!!

Well, maybe not. It might have been Discover. We aren't sure.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[PVnRT]

16. What's with all the deleted posts?

[DavidDvorkin]

17. And were they all from the same person?

I'd love to know.

[Orrex]

24. The deleted posts may not actually exist

[IndianaGreen]

30. They are quantum dark posts

and the uncertainty principle is at play.

:crazy:

[laconicsax]

19. Isn't that how hypotheses work?

They could be right but they could also be flat-out wrong and until confirmed, they're basically educated guesses?

[steven johnson]

20. Another error is the variability of type 1a supernovae brightness

Another chink in the dark energy hypotheses is the assumption of uniform brightness of type 1a supernovae.

The stellar explosions known as type 1a supernovae have long been used as "standard candles," their uniform brightness giving astronomers a way to measure cosmic distances and the expansion of the universe. But a new study published this week in Nature reveals sources of variability in type 1a supernovae that will have to be taken into account if astronomers are to use them for more precise measurements in the future.

The discovery of dark energy, a mysterious force that is accelerating the expansion of the universe, was based on observations of type 1a supernovae. But in order to probe the nature of dark energy and determine if it is constant or variable over time, scientists will have to measure cosmic distances with much greater precision than they have in the past.

The potential for systematic bias comes primarily from variation in the initial chemical composition of the white dwarf star. Heavier elements are synthesized during supernova explosions, and debris from those explosions is incorporated into new stars. As a result, stars formed recently are likely to contain more heavy elements (higher "metallicity," in astronomers' terminology) than stars formed in the distant past.


Variability Of Type 1a Supernovae Has Implications For Dark Energy Studies

[Kip Humphrey]

23. So let me get this right: that which we do not what it is

does not exist.

Hmmmm...

maybe space is curved

or... folded.


Awhhh! Space!

The Final Frontier...

[centristgrandpa]

25. if only...

Making the invisible visible, finding order in disorder, what mysteries can it help us unravel? Fractals: Form, Chance and Dimension, by Benoit Mandelbrot. It would be beyond amazing if there was a project that mapped the universe using fractal Geometry, any thoughts? I watched this subject on NOVA thee other day and found it surprisingly pertinent when dealing with questions regarding to universal structure, if dark matter is to be revealed, my guess; it's going to be math. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/fractals/

[Taitertots]

27. I have had my doubts about dark matter

Some of the things that bothered me:
1)If dark matter was supposed to be everywhere in high concentration, why is it hard to find here?
2)How much "dark matter" could be explained by incorrect estimates of the number of black holes and the number of stars?
3)It would seem that black holes would create an increasing sized cone behind them where all light would enter the black hole. This would create an apparent lack of visible light in areas behind black holes.

[Ozymanithrax]

31. If the universe is infinite in size...

Where is the middle?

If everything is expanding and moving away from us, it will appear we are in the middle.