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

submitted 1 week 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] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I wonder what we will see once physics has really understood all this dark matter and dark energy stuff.

I guess they will then talk about those like when we talk about pre germ theory medicine, when people believed that "bad air" causes sickness, and vermin was "created" by dirt.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

The only difference I see is that "dark" is understood as unknown and not necessarily a single thing.

A lot of older stuff we talk about seems to be assertive in their existence and what they are. Not all of course, but in the absence of a term that indicates "we really don't know", it seems random ideas were pretty common.

That's not to say we don't still do that, but I think it'll be ideas that came out of or overly supported "dark" nomenclature. Like, say we find out we got Hubble's constant wrong. I don't think history will remember us as "believing in dark energy". Just that we got Hubble's constant wrong.