The accelerating universe as a research area investigates the observed late-time acceleration of cosmic expansion and its implications for fundamental physics and cosmology. It encompasses precise measurements of distance–redshift relations using Type Ia supernovae, baryon acoustic oscillations, and weak gravitational lensing, as well as constraints from cosmic microwave background anisotropies and large-scale structure growth. The field focuses on characterizing dark energy (e.g., cosmological constant, dynamical scalar fields, or modified gravity), determining its equation-of-state parameter and possible evolution, testing general relativity on cosmological scales, and developing theoretical frameworks and numerical simulations to reconcile observational data with models of cosmic expansion history.
The most comprehensive catalog of exploding white dwarf stars ever assembled has revealed new clues about dark energy, the mysterious force driving the universe's accelerating expansion. Researchers at The University of Queensland's ...
Astronomy
Sep 8, 2026
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Doubts about the standard model of cosmology are deepening after a new study identified fundamental problems in a recent analysis that defended the conventional view that the universe is currently undergoing accelerated expansion ...
Astronomy
Aug 26, 2026
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The universe is known to be expanding at an accelerating rate. Physicists typically attribute this acceleration to dark energy, a mysterious component of the universe that exerts negative pressure, causing space to expand ...
For close to a century, physicists have pursued a way to unite gravity with quantum mechanics. Known as quantum gravity, this goal has remained frustratingly out of reach so far. Similarly elusive is the force of dark energy, ...
According to current understanding, the universe is expanding—and is doing so at an accelerating rate. This is believed to be caused by something called the cosmological constant, which was first proposed by Albert Einstein ...
Astronomy
Jul 21, 2026
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For nearly a century, astronomers have known that the universe is expanding. In the late 1990s, two independent teams, the Supernova Cosmology Project, led by Saul Perlmutter, and the High-Z Supernova Search Team, led by ...
NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory has officially begun full operations for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), one of the world's largest astronomical imaging surveys. Behind the scenes, Japanese researchers and engineers ...
Astronomy
Jul 1, 2026
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Modern cosmology rests on a simple assumption: If we look on large enough scales, matter should be distributed evenly, with no preferred direction within the cosmos. This is known as the cosmological principle.
Astronomy
Jul 1, 2026
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Gravity, the force that attracts objects toward each other, is currently framed by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. This framework describes gravity as the curvature of spacetime, the invisible four-dimensional ...
Research led by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, along with Professor Subir Sarkar from the University of Oxford, questions the widely accepted argument that the expansion rate of the universe is accelerating ...
Astronomy
Jun 22, 2026
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