"Dark Energy— 99.996% Certain" Topic

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This has all sorts of implications and raises all sorts of questions, too— namely, "What the heck is dark energy, and where does it come from?"

Oh, and so much for the Big Crunch. (Not that we didn't know that already.)
(Which by the way means that BNL needs to alter the closing lyrics to the theme song for "The Big Bang Theory." But they already needed to do that, too.)

Dark energy- God´s duct tape.

Nice article, Parzival, you´re like the Jules Bergman of TMP.

Right. Next thing you are going to tell me is that there are Romulan time travelers that are bent on the destruction of some planet called Vulcan!

99.996% Certain

So what you are saying is the they don't really know…

Just heard from the OFM, who is of the opinion that dark matter and dark energy are merely efforts put forth to balance out an equation that doesn't actually reflect reality in the first place.

Or, to put it this way: if the premise is wrong, the daughter ideas of the premise will also be wrong, and cannot make it right— you have to go back and correct the premise.

Not sure I agree, but it's interesting to consider. Wouldn't be the first time that science has gone chasing down the flawed path of assumed orthodoxy. (No, that is not a reference to any climate debate. Chill out, the both of yous!)

So we'll see what debate arises around this.

Ahhh, like the ether eh? Certainly a possibility. Nice to see John is not being tortured too much now that he is in captivity.

I can assure you that astrophysicists are not so hidebound as the OFMs of the world would have you believe.

Reminds me of the old Boer War vets sitting in the Gentlemen's Club, smoking their stogies and sipping their brandies, polishing their monocles and complaining about the loss of the Empire and "these demmed wimmen gettin' the vote, don'tchaknow."

If astronomical theories need to change to accommodate new data, they'll change.

Just heard from the OFM, who is of the opinion that dark matter and dark energy are merely efforts put forth to balance out an equation that doesn't actually reflect reality in the first place.

Or they could actually exist!

Dark energy- God´s duct tape

LOL!

Woudln't dark mater be gods duct tape and dark energy be gods…

I have no good analogy, but it's dark mater that keeps galaxies togeather, and dark energy that keep other galaxies moving away from each other.

I think the make up of the universe is now, 5-10% mater, 15% Dark mater and 80-90% dark enegry.

Most theories are proven by making testable predictions, until that is done they are just that. Some theories have been 'adjusted' over time until proven absolutely false. Right now, and until they can explain what dark energy is, where it came from and what it does, they've moved the needle a little off dead center but not into the oonclusive zone.

The concept that the Universe is expanding and at an accelerating rate has been discussed for decades. The model predicted red-shifted super novae. This was already observed as early as 14 years ago

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Also the Alcock–Paczynski test has confirmed other predictions

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The researchers used a version of the Alcock–Paczynski test, which relies on identifying symmetrical objects in space and using them as 'standard spheres'. Any distortions in space caused by the expansion of the cosmos would cause the most distant standard spheres to appear asymmetrical. "This provides a similar level of accuracy to supernovae," says Marinoni. "It's a direct proof of dark energy."

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Now, my science training was in the biological fields, so all this cosmology is poorly understood by me. What is does look like to me is that, while the exact physical nature of dark energy is still unknown, the current model does accurately account for it's existence. I'm in no position to determine how conclusive these findings are.

Woudln't dark mater be gods duct tape and dark energy be gods…

Gunfreak is correct.

Dark Matter is God's duct tape

Dark Energy is God's……………..dynamite?

I don't think dynamite is good enough, after all dynamite can never break the power of the mighty duct tape. Dark energy is god's tsar bomb

Lol!

But I can't help thinking that either the dynamite is really weak in your country, or your country has much better duct tape than mine. Which is sad, because I live in the country of Red Green, the master of all things duct tape.