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.
New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope suggest that a new feature in the universe—not a flaw in telescope measurements—may be behind the decade-long mystery of why the universe is expanding faster today than ...
Astronomy
Dec 9, 2024
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Distant, ancient galaxies are giving scientists more hints that a mysterious force called dark energy may not be what they thought.
Astronomy
Nov 23, 2024
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Why is the expansion of our universe accelerating? Twenty-five years after its discovery, this phenomenon remains one of the greatest scientific mysteries. Solving it involves testing the fundamental laws of physics, including ...
Astronomy
Nov 11, 2024
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169
The Physics of the Accelerating Universe Survey (PAUS), an international collaboration across 14 institutions, has covered a sky area of 50 square degrees, similar to approximately 250 full moons.
Astronomy
Sep 28, 2024
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139
In 1998, scientists discovered that our universe expands with acceleration, and in order to explain this effect, the concept of dark matter was introduced. This is a special type of energy that fills up all of existing space-time ...
Astronomy
Sep 26, 2024
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133
How much do we really know about what else is out there in the universe?
General Physics
Sep 4, 2024
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Dark energy remains among the greatest puzzles in our understanding of the cosmos. In the standard model of cosmology called the Lambda-CDM, it is accounted for by adding a cosmological constant term in Einstein's field equation ...
Dark energy—a mysterious force pushing the universe apart at an ever-increasing rate—was discovered 26 years ago, and ever since, scientists have been searching for a new and exotic particle causing the expansion.
General Physics
Jun 26, 2024
2
192
The accelerated expansion of the present universe, believed to be driven by a mysterious dark energy, is one of the greatest puzzles in our understanding of the cosmos. The standard model of cosmology called Lambda-CDM, explains ...
One of the greatest problems in modern physics is to reconcile the enormous difference between the energy carried by random fluctuations in the vacuum of space, and the dark energy driving the universe's expansion.
General Physics
Mar 6, 2024
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824
