New results from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer and the Anglo-Australian Telescope atop Siding Spring Mountain in Australia confirm that dark energy (represented by purple grid) is a smooth, uniform force that now dominates over the effects of gravity (green grid). The observations follow from careful measurements of the separations between pairs of galaxies (examples of such pairs are illustrated here).
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Night-time photo of the Anglo-Australian Telescope in central New South Wales during observations for the WiggleZ project.
Credit: Michael Drinkwater (UQ) and David Woods (UBC)
LONDON: A major survey of more than 200,000 galaxies has provided the strongest evidence so far for the existence of mysterious 'dark energy', according to Australian astronomers.
Proof that this unknown quantity is real would revolutionise our understanding of the laws of physics, explaining why the universe appears to be expanding at an increasing rate and will tell us if, when, and how it might end. It could also resolve a century old 'mistake' in Einstein's Theory of Relativity.
The latest results from the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey were derived from data collected by the Anglo-Australian Telescope in central New South Wales and are to be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
"WiggleZ says dark energy is real," said lead author Chris Blake, from Swinburne University's Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing in Melbourne. "Einstein remains untoppled."
Hunting in the dark
The search for dark energy began in the late 1990s when scientists studying exploding stars discovered the expansion of the universe was speeding up. They proposed that a force attributable to 'dark energy' was causing this acceleration by overcoming the pull of gravity between galaxies.
But although this material is now thought to be the main component of our universe, scientists still have no physical understanding of its existence or magnitude.
The WiggleZ survey examined a vast number of galaxies in unprecedented detail, looking back in time 7 billion years to provide new and compelling evidence that dark energy exists as an anti-gravitational agent.
392 galaxies per hour
"We have been able to track the effects of dark energy further back into the history of the Universe than ever before," explained Blake.
A team of 26 astronomers used the Anglo-Australian telescope located in Epping, Sydney, to study nearly 240,000 galaxies over hundreds of nights of observation between 2006 and 2010.
The success of the project depended on the use of cutting edge technology, in the form of a powerful spectrograph able to image 392 galaxies an hour.
A cosmological constant
By collecting two sets of data on the pattern of galaxy distribution in space and the formation of clusters of galaxies over time, the group found proof of dark energy speeding up the expansion of the universe and slowing down the attraction between matter.
"According to the standard model of the universe described by Einstein's equations, our data demonstrates the existence of dark energy as a real material using these twin methods," said Blake. "Unlike any known form of matter or energy, it counters the force of gravity via its uncontrollable desire to expand."
The results serve as independent confirmation of the previous observations from exploding stars.
They also provide an explanation for a constant in Einstein's Theory of Relativity that the genius himself discarded as a mistake. "Dark energy is a real 'cosmological constant' filling the universe, rather than a failure of the laws of gravity," explained Blake.
The Cosmological Constant,
The Cosmological Constant, is the eternal singularity (equator) of gravitation and anti-gravitation pair of Spacetime-Continuum.
-Aiya-Oba (Philosopher)
expansion of the universe
BLACK HOLES, EXPANSION, AND DARK ENERGY
In the continuum of space and time, exists the dichotomy of matter and energy. All things exist as both matter and energy, but are experienced as one or the other.
As energy, all things exist as wave patterns. Most wave patterns are interferences of simpler wave patterns. The simplest wave forms are those that do not interfere with other waves. These simplest wave forms hold their shape as they propagate. There are three such wave forms.
The first such wave form is seen in three dimensions as the spherical expansion wave of a bomb blast, and in two dimensions as the circular wave of expansion on the water where a rock was tossed in. The second wave form is seen in three dimensions as the cone of sonic boom following an aircraft traveling faster than sound, and in two dimensions as the V-wake on the water where the boat is traveling faster than the water wave. The third wave form is seen in three dimensions as the propagation torus of a smoke ring and is seen in two dimensions as the double vortexes of an oar stroke on the water.
The Torus is a particle of discrete exchange, from one point to another. The object exchanges position and momentum. While the spherical wave shows position, and the conic wave shows momentum, the torus shows both at the same time, and has a dynamic finite unbounded reality. The volumes of the cone, sphere, and torus are mathematically related as static objects.
The Universe is a local density fluctuation. (a wave pulse) On this local density fluctuation wave, lesser wave forms may exist. All simple wave forms are also local density fluctuations, and as such are indeed universes in their own right, where other waves may exist.
Consider the torus as a universe. Einstein said that gravity is indistinguishable from acceleration. There is both linear acceleration and angular acceleration. Although the torus as a whole travels in a straight line, every local point on the torus travels in a circle and experiences angular acceleration.
The rubber sheet model of gravity and curved space translates directly to the propagating torus with angular acceleration. Acceleration is downward on the rubber sheet and outward on the torus. The tension field that separates the inside of the torus from the outside holds its shape as a simple two dimensional field of space and time just as the rubber sheet does.
Experimentally verifiable is that a big fat slow smoke ring generated in a room with very still air will eventually possess a bulge that travels in a circle on the surface of the smoke ring. This bulge, being a gravitational depression, gathers more of the energy of the field toward itself. Finally the bulge gathers enough material to collapse the field and eject a new, smaller smoke ring out in the same direction as the first torus. This collapse is a black hole to the first torus, and a white hole to the second torus, where the axes of space and time in that second torus have reversed.
While gravity tends to draw depressions together locally on a dynamic torus, even to the point of field collapse, other areas on a torus expand and contract globally as the torus propagates along without regard to local phenomenon on the surface. This is quintessence. The inertia of the torus to propagate is its dark energy. This is a two-dimensional example of the process that we experience in three dimensions.
From structureofexistence.com by Dan Echegoyen 951-204-0201
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Dan Echegoyen
author of StructureOfExistence.com
(951) 204-0201
Dark Energy Possibilities
Dark energy seems to be a uniform property of the fabric of space-time just as gravity is a property of matter and energy. What are the possibilities of dark energy outside of the expansion of the universe? This would seem to be great fodder for the science fiction writer.
Bruce
www.dominsions.com