Latest Dark energy Stories
New dark energy model includes cosmological phase transitionImagine a time when the entire universe froze. According to a new model for dark energy, that is essentially what happened about 11.5 billion years ago, when the universe was a quarter of the size it is today.The model, published online May 6 in the journal Physical Review D, was developed by Research Associate Sourish Dutta and Professor of Physics Robert Scherrer at Vanderbilt University, working with Professor of Physics Stephen...
Whatever dark energy is, explanations for it have less wiggle room following a Hubble Space Telescope observation that has refined the measurement of the universe's present expansion rate to a precision where the error is smaller than five percent. The new value for the expansion rate, known as the Hubble constant, or H0 (after Edwin Hubble who first measured the expansion of the universe nearly a century ago), is 74.2 kilometers per second per megaparsec (error margin of ± 3.6). The...
An orbiting satellite has detected an anomalous energy signal that European astronomers say could be a sign of dark matter, the AFP reported.The researchers said they may have picked up a signature of this strange phenomenon, but more work is needed. Ordinary material such as atoms comprise perhaps as little as five percent of what makes up the cosmos, according to previous studies by astrophysicists calculating the amount of matter in the Universe. Data suggests the remainder originates...
During the next decade, a delicate measurement of primordial light could reveal convincing evidence for the popular cosmic inflation theory, which proposes that a random, microscopic density fluctuation in the fabric of space and time gave birth to the universe in a hot big bang approximately 13.7 billion years ago.Among the cosmologists searching for these weak signals will be John Carlstrom, the S. Chandrasekhar Distinguished Service Professor in Astronomy & Astrophysics at the...
HAMPTON, Va., Feb. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Most of the universe remains mysterious to scientists and researchers everywhere. More than 90 percent of the universe is "dark," composed of dark energy and dark matter observed only by their gravitational interaction with both light and "normal" matter. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Understanding the nature of dark energy and matter is one of the most significant challenges in science -- one that...
Earth's location in the Universe is utterly unremarkable, despite recent theories that propose toppling a foundation of modern cosmology, according to a team of University of British Columbia researchers.Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus's 1543 book, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, moved Earth from being the centre of the Universe to just another planet orbiting the Sun. Since then, astronomers have extended the idea and formed the Copernican Principle, which says that our...
WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- For the first time, astronomers have clearly seen the effects of "dark energy" on the most massive collapsed objects in the universe using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. By tracking how dark energy has stifled the growth of galaxy clusters and combining this with previous studies, scientists have obtained the best clues yet about what dark energy is and what the destiny of the universe could be. (Logo:...
U.S. astronomers say they have, for the first time, clearly observed the effects of dark energy on the most massive collapsed objects in the universe. National Aeronautics and Space Administration astronomers using the agency's Chandra X-ray Observatory tracked how dark energy has stifled the growth of galaxy clusters. Combining that information with previous studies, scientists say they have obtained the best clues yet about what dark energy is and what the destiny of the universe might...
For the first time, astronomers have clearly seen the effects of "dark energy" on the most massive collapsed objects in the universe using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. By tracking how dark energy has stifled the growth of galaxy clusters and combining this with previous studies, scientists have obtained the best clues yet about what dark energy is and what the destiny of the universe could be.This work, which took years to complete, is separate from other methods of dark energy...
NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have signed a memorandum of understanding for the implementation of the Joint Dark Energy Mission, or JDEM. The mission will feature the first space-based observatory designed specifically to understand the nature of dark energy.Dark energy is a form of energy that pervades and dominates the universe. The mission will measure with high precision the universe's expansion rate and growth structure. Data from the mission could help scientists...
Latest Dark energy Reference Libraries
Image Caption: The Hubble Extreme Deep Field (XDF) was completed in September 2012 and shows the farthest galaxies ever photographed by humans. Each speck of light in the photo is an individual galaxy, some of them as old as 13.2 billion years; the observable universe is estimated to contain more than 200 billion galaxies. Credit: NASA/Wikipedia What is Cosmology? I once commented to an acquaintance that I was fascinated by the field of Cosmology, and mused that if I had more time, I...
Quintessence (Dark Energy) -- Quintessence or dark energy is a hypothetical form of energy postulated to exist in order to explain observations of an accelerating universe. This energy would act like a vacuum pressure, pushing things apart. Other attempts to explain these recent observations involve a non-zero cosmological constant, which has the same effect. Indeed, sometimes quintessence is said to result in a non-zero cosmological constant, and conversely a non-zero cosmological...
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) -- The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) was launched on June 30, 2001 at 3:46 p.m. EDT at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA. The goal of WMAP was to map out minute differences in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation which would help test theories of the nature of the universe. On February 11, 2003, the public relations group from NASA made a press release regarding the age and composition of the universe....
