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Dark energy is weakening and the universe could (eventually) collapse, study says (www.npr.org)

submitted 11 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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...Scientists have believed dark energy was a "cosmological constant," but it is actually changing over time in unexpected ways...current data shows that, at the beginning of the universe, dark energy was very strong. But it has weakened with time and will continue to do so...The new research builds on data released from DESI in April 2024 that found signs that dark energy was changing. DESI has been surveying the universe for four years and an analysis of five years' worth of data is next for its research

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

But probably not before I have to go to work on Monday, huh?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

There's always vacuum decay. Simply put, the entire universe could be in an unstable "false vacuum" state and all it would take is something suitably cataclysmic, yet of a form beyond that we can detect, and what we know of as spacetime would unravel from that point outwards at light speed, undetectable until it hits us. If you've ever seen those slow motion videos of a water balloon popping, it'd be a bit like that, with us on the bit of balloon that hasn't quite "realised" that half the balloon is gone already.

But then, predictions range from "complete annihilation of all things" to "imperceptible shift in cosmological constants that doesn't affect much at all". Heck, it might have already happened once or twice if that's the case.

But if it hasn't... POP!