Scientists studying universe's expansion win Nobel Prize in Physics

The widely celebrated discoveries, reported in 1998, indicated that a mysterious and invisible form of energy called dark energy is counteracting the force of gravity, pushing matter apart at an ever faster rate.
The discovery means that the universe is likely to continue expanding indefinitely, instead of reaching a steady state or collapsing back in on itself in what some call a "big crunch."

The article then goes onto say that 74% of the universe is made of dark matter.
How did they estimate that?
Is the measuring of one supernova star enough evidence that the universe is expanding?
What proof is there of dark energy?

If anyone is more informed of this, an explanation would be appreciated.
cnn.com



I know this theory has been out quite some time, but why 12 years to hand out the award?

reply to post by nixie_nox


Probably before the speed of light was broken...

Can they take those back?

This will answer your questions www.nobelprize.org...
2nd line

reply to post by nixie_nox


"Dark Matter" is only dark to us "now" as we are limited to what our eyes actually see is my opinion....and I may be a loner in this said opinion.

Originally posted by MamaJ
reply to post by nixie_nox

 

"Dark Matter" is only dark to us "now" as we are limited to what our eyes actually see is my opinion....and I may be a loner in this said opinion.

Dark matter is a convenient human invention to explain huge holes in the math that define what we think we know about the Universe. It is nothing more and nothing less, when we have a better understanding of the workings of the 4 fundamental forces, dark matter will go away.

Either the math fits or it does not, creating something out of nothing to hide your ignorance is folly.

Originally posted by Helious

Originally posted by MamaJ
reply to post by nixie_nox

 

"Dark Matter" is only dark to us "now" as we are limited to what our eyes actually see is my opinion....and I may be a loner in this said opinion.

Dark matter is a convenient human invention to explain huge holes in the math that define what we think we know about the Universe. It is nothing more and nothing less, when we have a better understanding of the workings of the 4 fundamental forces, dark matter will go away.

Either the math fits or it does not, creating something out of nothing to hide your ignorance is folly.

I don't know anything about the science involved, but I think you're probably right. There are alot of things we don't understand and know, and until we do, we have to come up with theories and guesses. It seems to me that dark matter is just one of those convenient theories to explain the unexplained.

reply to post by Helious


The article said dark energy. Is there a difference between dark energy and dark matter?

I kind of agree with your point though.

Originally posted by trollz
I don't know anything about the science involved, but I think you're probably right. There are alot of things we don't understand and know, and until we do, we have to come up with theories and guesses. It seems to me that dark matter is just one of those convenient theories to explain the unexplained.

I'm familiar with this research.

It's not just mathematical, like String theory is.

These are real observations of many real supernovas.

So we know from these observations what is happening to the supernovas.

The gap isn't so much in the mathematics, because there is some mathematics, to explain it, such as Albert Einstein's cosmological constant.

The problem is, nobody has proven that it's Albert Einstein's cosmological constant that's causing the expansion. It could be something else causing it. And since we aren't sure of the cause, we call it "Dark" energy, where the Dark is an admission that we just don't know the cause.

What makes this discovery so amazing is, I don't know of one scientist who predicted this result. To the best of my knowledge, everyone thought the expansion of the universe was slowing down, so it was a complete shock to find the expansion of the universe was speeding up. Nobody expected it, not even Albert Einstein who called his cosmological constant his biggest blunder and decided it didn't exist.
It was the surprise of the century, I think, to find out that perhaps Albert Einstein's blunder wasn't a blunder after all. It appears he may have been right, but we really aren't sure yet.

Originally posted by nixie_nox
reply to post by Helious

 

The article said dark energy. Is there a difference between dark energy and dark matter?

I kind of agree with your point though.

Yes. Dark matter was known before this. It's the stuff we can't see that's making galaxies spin faster and holding galaxy clusters together.

Dark energy is what's making galaxies fly apart at faster and faster rates.

So in a way, they're opposites, one is holding things together, the other is pushing them apart.

Every explosion on stars pushes the outer envelope.
Soon the fine matter will get too thin perhaps.
Without the wave action of the fine matter gravity will cease to exist.
Well only those with infinite time universes need worry.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Thank you for this response. It cleared a lot of this up and you helped explain the importance of the findings.
Star for you!

reply to post by TeslaandLyne


I had that thought too, so if the universe is infinite, what happens when everything expands, and what effect will this have, not having galaxies effect each other?

reply to post by nixie_nox


That would be what cosmologist refer to as the Big Rip.

Matter of the universe, from stars and galaxies to atoms and subatomic particles, is progressively torn apart by the expansion of the universe at a certain time in the future.

Others refer to ultimate expansion to cause the Big Chill, as matter and mass becomes so far dispersed atomic motion edges closer to Absolute Zero, or 0ºK, when motion stops.

reply to post by Illustronic


Thank you for that.

*makes note that any future space questions should be asked of people with a nebulous avatar*

Originally posted by nixie_nox
reply to post by TeslaandLyne

 

I had that thought too, so if the universe is infinite, what happens when everything expands, and what effect will this have, not having galaxies effect each other?

In the medium of space there appears to be repulsion for expansion but
also attraction like galaxies colliding.

Objects might be vibrating or moving in response to sun explosions.
People investigated this wave action:

investigated by C.A. Bjerknes between 1877 and 1910. Bjerknes showed that when two spheres immersed in an incompressible fluid were pulsated, they exerted a mutual attraction which obeyed Newton’s inverse square law if the pulsations were in phase, while if the phases differed by a half wave, the spheres repelled. At one quarter wave difference, there was no action. Where pulses were non-instantaneous at distances greater than a quarter wavelength, attractions and repulsions were reversed (Repertorium d. Mathematik I [Leipzig, 1877], p. 268; Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. iii [1879], p. 276; iv [1880], p. 29).

So wave vibrations, physical or electrical through the fine matter of space,
according to various parameters, things may attract or repulse or do nothing.
search page for Bjerknes