oops there goes dark energy

Vastet
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oops there goes dark energy

The universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, or is it?

Date:
October 21, 2016

Source:
University of Oxford

Summary:
Five years ago, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three astronomers for their discovery that the universe is expanding at an accelerating pace. This 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 has cast doubt on this standard cosmological concept. The evidence for acceleration may be flimsier than previously thought, they say, with the data being consistent with a constant rate of expansion.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161021123238.htm


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 Why after the supposed

 Why after the supposed discovery of dark energy and matter, the age of the universe was never updated? The estimate is still around 14B years and has been so for over 50 years. They've only made minor adjustments in the estimate. Meanwhile, they way underestimated the size.

Seems they should just say they don't know. But there is no money or fame in saying you don't know.

 

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The age of the universe is

The age of the universe is primarily determined through the cosmic microwave background radiation, or CMB. All updates to the age of the universe are the result of finer details discovered through better technology and methodology.

It is true that dark energy has had an impact (as the accelerating expansion effect has been figured into extrapolating backwards through time), but this new information is... new. There hasn't even been time to confirm or deny this study, let alone enough time to take the new data and apply it to refine the estimated age of the universe. It will happen, once the data is confirmed. But there's little point changing figures when you aren't certain the figures need changing.

The size of the universe is undeterminable by any measure currently available or even foreseeable. No educated estimates can exist. What you hear when people talk about the size of the universe is actually the size of the visible universe, which is a very different thing. It isn't hard to measure the visible universe, because it is visible. We can see it, we can measure it. But anything a sufficient distance away moving at a sufficient speed will never be visible. If there's a galaxy 16 billion lightyears away and travelling away from us at any velocity at all, it is physically impossible for us to ever see it, as the light it generates will never get here.

So in short, science has not underestimated the size of the universe because it is impossible to determine the size of the universe which would be a prerequisite to knowing the validity or lack thereof of any such estimate. Anyone who has ever suggested a size for the universe pulled that estimate out of their ass and every scientist in the field knew it and ridiculed the person for their foolishness.

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