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A newly published analysis of Type Ia supernovae calls into question the accelerating expansion of the universe and the existence of dark energy:
Five years ago, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three astronomers for their discovery, in the late 1990s, that the universe is expanding at an accelerating pace. Their conclusions were based on analysis of Type Ia supernovae – the spectacular thermonuclear explosions of dying stars – picked up by the Hubble space telescope and large ground-based telescopes. It led to the widespread acceptance of the idea that the universe is dominated by a mysterious substance named 'dark energy' that drives this accelerating expansion.
Now, a team of scientists led by Professor Subir Sarkar of Oxford University's Department of Physics has cast doubt on this standard cosmological concept. Making use of a vastly increased data set – a catalogue of 740 Type Ia supernovae, more than ten times the original sample size – the researchers have found that the evidence for acceleration may be flimsier than previously thought, with the data being consistent with a constant rate of expansion.
Marginal evidence for cosmic acceleration from Type Ia supernovae (open, DOI: 10.1038/srep35596) (DX)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 27 2016, @06:32AM
Dark energy and dark matter don't have much to do with each other except we call them both "dark".
Evidence for dark matter is very solid. We don't know what it is, but it's extremely unlikely that we'll just one day say "whoops, looks like it's not real, sorry about that." Personally, I think it's mostly microscopic primordial black holes.
And this is just one study. If the results are confirmed independently, and ideally backed up by other results obtained by a different method, then it's groundbreaking. Totally changes the cosmology game. But individual studies have a way of evaporating under stricter scrutiny.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 27 2016, @09:37AM
Dark energy and dark matter don't have much to do with each other
Except for on the one hand, you have some undetectable mass that is supposedly the majority of the mass in the universe exerting a gravitational field, and on the other hand this field seemingly has no effect on the acceleration of the universe.
That's quantum mechanics level weird. And cosmologist throw up their hands and say "it must be" without bothering to explain how these two ideas interact with each other.
True enough that one study doesn't make a revolution, but even without it, the dark matter, dark energy view of the world didn't make much sense.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 27 2016, @04:06PM
Did you read GP's statement that dark energy and dark matter have little to do with each other before writing about this "dark matter, dark energy view of the world?"
Also, if expansion is not accelerating, then why should dark matter have any bearing on this acceleration that we just supposed is not happening?
But nope! It's all politically correct garbage! The world is flat! I've never observed anything that would lead me to believe the earth is a ball!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday October 27 2016, @10:37AM
Last I heard, black holes with an event horizon that small would decay quickly enough that you couldn't measure their lifespan with a stopwatch.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.