Dartmouth researchers shed new light on dark energy, cosmic speed-up

The detailed, all-sky picture of the Cosmic Microwave
Background in the infant universe reveals 13.77 billion
year old temperature fluctuations (shown as color differences)
that correspond to the seeds that grew to become the galaxies.
Credit: NASA/WMAP Science Team.

In a new study, Dartmouth researchers rule out a controversial theory that the accelerating expansion of the universe is an illusion.

While the findings don't explain the cosmic speed-up, they eliminate one provocative possibility that our planet, solar system and galaxy are at the center of the universe and that there is no dark energy. The findings appear in the journal Physical Review D. A PDF of the study is available on request.

The 2011 Nobel Prize was awarded for the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. One leading idea to explain the acceleration is a new, mysterious substance called dark energy, which is thought to make up nearly three-fourths of the energy of the universe.

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