'More than a hint' that dark energy isn't what astronomers thought
1–10 of 107 posts
Re: 'More than a hint' that dark energy isn't what astronomers thought
#2Re: 'More than a hint' that dark energy isn't what astronomers thought
#3[dead]
Re: 'More than a hint' that dark energy isn't what astronomers thought
#4I know it makes for a "better" headline, but don't be mislead by it thinking Astronomers actually thought dark energy was a cosmological constant, period. Read section 1.1 of the Euclid review paper from 2016 to get an impression straight from the horses mouth.
> Why then is the cosmological constant not the end of the story as far as cosmic acceleration is concerned? There are at least three reasons.
Re: 'More than a hint' that dark energy isn't what astronomers thought
#5> Dark energy, the new measurement suggests, may not resign our universe to a fate of being ripped apart across every scale, from galaxy clusters down to atomic nuclei.
Wasn’t ‘the universe won’t end in a “big rip” the widely held idea?
Re: 'More than a hint' that dark energy isn't what astronomers thought
#6> If dark energy really is Einstein’s constant, the standard model portends a bleak future: The universe will keep speeding up, forever, becoming darker and lonelier. Distant galaxies will eventually be too far away to see. All energy, life and thought will be sucked from the cosmos.
The laws of thermodynamics pretty much guarantees this anyways does it not?
Re: 'More than a hint' that dark energy isn't what astronomers thought
#7Lots of non-paywalled coverage out there in the mainstream press, eg:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/mar/19/dark-energy-...
Re: 'More than a hint' that dark energy isn't what astronomers thought
#8> Dark energy, the new measurement suggests, may not resign our universe to a fate of being ripped apart across every scale, from galaxy clusters down to atomic nuclei. Wasn’t ‘the universe won’t end in a “big rip” the widely held idea?
Yes, big rip was clearly disfavored by available data, and heat death ("big freeze") the most likely scenario. I haven't kept up in the past few years, abut AFAIK nothing so far has changed that.
Re: 'More than a hint' that dark energy isn't what astronomers thought
#9> If dark energy really is Einstein’s constant, the standard model portends a bleak future: The universe will keep speeding up, forever, becoming darker and lonelier. Distant galaxies will eventually be too far away to see. All energy, life and thought will be sucked from the cosmos. The laws of thermodynamics pretty much guarantees this anyways does it not?
Sure, but this may be news to the target audience of the article.
Re: 'More than a hint' that dark energy isn't what astronomers thought
#10> If dark energy really is Einstein’s constant, the standard model portends a bleak future: The universe will keep speeding up, forever, becoming darker and lonelier. Distant galaxies will eventually be too far away to see. All energy, life and thought will be sucked from the cosmos. The laws of thermodynamics pretty much guarantees this anyways does it not?
Still, we’ve got a little while to go before star formation can no longer occur.
Some estimates put the star formation period from 1 to 100 trillion years.
I’d be more concerned about our collision course with the Andromeda Galaxy in four to five billion years.