Universe is expanding faster and faster.Astronomers at Yonsei University corrected for stellar age effects in supernova data and found that dark energy may be losing strength, suggesting the cosmos has already begun slowing down.
The expansion of the Universe may no longer be speeding up as once believed. A new study suggests that cosmic growth could have already begun to slow, challenging one of modern astronomy’s most established ideas.
“Remarkable” findings published on November 6 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society raise serious questions about the long-held theory that an unknown force called “dark energy” is pushing galaxies apart at an accelerating pace.
Instead, the researchers report finding no clear evidence that the Universe’s expansion is still accelerating.
If confirmed, the discovery could reshape scientists’ understanding of dark energy, help resolve the “Hubble tension” (the disagreement over the Universe’s expansion rate), and reveal new insights into both the origin and ultimate fate of the cosmos.
Lead researcher Professor Young-Wook Lee of Yonsei University in South Korea explained: “Our study shows that the Universe has already entered a phase of decelerated expansion at the present epoch and that dark energy evolves with time much more rapidly than previously thought.
“If these results are confirmed, it would mark a major paradigm shift in cosmology since the discovery of dark energy 27 years ago.”
