Scientists Find the Possible Source for Dark Energy

Scientists Find the Possible Source for Dark Energy
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Scientists found out for quite a while about the existence of a mysterious force that causes the expansion of the Universe to accelerate. Without it, the Universe might be on its way back towards the singularity from where it came from during the Big Bang event, or at least it would expand much slower than it does. Although nobody knows precisely what that force is and what it’s made of, astronomers and astrophysicists have a cool name for it: dark energy.

But that doesn’t mean that scientists can’t find other important info about dark energy, such as where the heck it is coming from. 

The answer might be in the huge voids of space

According to livescience.com, new research led by a team of Iranian theoretical physicists indicates that the reason behind the accelerated expansion of the Universe might be represented by the huge voids of space. In other words, dark energy might have its origin in those humongous portions of void.

The largest cosmic void can measure over 160 million light-years across. This is way more than the diameter of our own Milky Way galaxy, for instance, which measures only 100,000 light-years.

It may not surprise you that pretty much only the cosmic voids can directly “feel” the effects of dark energy. In other words, dark energy doesn’t make any planet or galaxy become bigger. We obviously can’t say the same about the cosmic voids.

The cosmic voids, just like any other structure of the Universe, had their incipient and undeveloped phases.

Even the growth of cosmic voids can be seen from a different perspective than the one of an inevitable pattern. These structures also inflict some pressure on other cosmic structures, and they can even distort spacetime. It’s even estimated that in the far future, the cosmic web will be destroyed by cosmic voids, which can also lead to an accelerated cosmic expansion. 

Until more research is done to confirm or deny the present work, what’s for sure and also surprising is that those huge voids make up most of the Universe.

The new study paper was published in arXiv and accepted for publication in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters

 


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Even since he was a child, Cristian was staring curiously at the stars, wondering about the Universe and our place in it. Today he's seeing his dream come true by writing about the latest news in astronomy. Cristian is also glad to be covering health and other science topics, having significant experience in writing about such fields.

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