A study of 200,000 galaxies over five years has resulted inone of the best confirmations that dark energy is driving our universe to speed up. The study used data from NASA’s spacecraftGalaxy Evolution Explorer and the Anglo-Australian Telescope ofSiding Spring Mountain.
The results offer anew support for the theory that dark energy functions as a constant force, uniform, that affects the universe and propels its expansion out of control. However, they arein contradiction to an alternative theory, where gravity, not dark energy, is the force that pushes the separation in space. According to this alternative theory, with which the results of the new study are not consistent, Albert Einstein’s concept of gravity is wrong, and gravity repels rather than attracts when it acts at great distances.
“The action of dark energy is like throwing a ball into the air and accelerating upward into the sky faster and faster,” said Chris Blake of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. Blake is the lead author of two articles describing the results in the journalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
“The results tell us thatdark energy is a cosmological constant, which Einstein proposed. If gravity were to blame, then we wouldn’t be seeing the constant effects of dark energy over time, “adds Blake. Dark energy is believed to dominate our universe, accounting for about 74 percent. Dark matter accounts for 22 percent. And so-called normal matter, made up of atoms and the matter that makes up living things, planets, and stars, is only about four percent of the cosmos.
