The Change Mariner

Astronomers Report Evidence of 'Dark Energy' Splitting the Universe

New York Times

By comparing maps of heat emanating from the fading remnants of the Big Bang to maps of the modern universe, astronomers say they have uncovered evidence that some "dark energy" is wrenching the universe apart.

The new work, they said, provides independent confirmation of one of the strangest astronomical findings in recent years, that based on studies of distant exploding stars the expansion of the universe is speeding up.

The simplest explanation, astrophysicists say, is that space is imbued with a repulsive, or antigravitational, force first hypothesized in 1917 by Einstein and known as the cosmological constant. But nobody understands this so-called dark energy, although speculations have blossomed in the physics literature in the last few years.

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