It is present in the room with you as you read, within your very body, but gravity counteracts it so you don't go flying out of your seat. This mysterious pressure remained undiscovered for so long because it is so weak that gravity overpowers it on the scale of humans, planets, and even the galaxy. We still don’t know what exactly is causing the acceleration, but it has been given a name: dark energy. The expansion of the universe is not slowing down due to gravity, as everyone thought – it’s speeding up. The mystery escalated in 1998 when Hubble Space Telescope observations of more distant supernovae helped show that the universe actually expanded more slowly in the past than it does today. The universe was far from static, as most people previously believed – it was ballooning outward.Īstronomers have measured how fast the universe is expanding by using ground-based telescopes to study relatively nearby supernova explosions. Roman Community Forum and Mailing List Signupĭark Energy Expansion Graph : Animation illustrating the changing rate of expansion due to dark energyĬredit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centerīroadcast-quality version of this video, as well as transcripts and still images are available for download from NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization StudioĪs the 1920s were coming to a close, astronomers made the startling discovery that with very few exceptions, galaxies are racing away from each other. ![]() ![]() Call for Community Input into the Definition of the Roman Space Telescope’s Core Community Surveys. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |