dark energy – Astronomy Now

Scientists precisely measure total amount of matter in the cosmos

28 September 2020 Astronomy Now

Astronomers come up with the best estimate yet for the total amount of normal and dark matter making up the universe.

Trail-blazing astronomer Vera Rubin honoured

8 January 2020 Astronomy Now

The observatory that will operate the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope has been renamed in honour of the late astronomer Vera Rubin.

5,000 electronic “eyes” poised to map the effects of dark energy

30 October 2019 Astronomy Now

The DESI instrument’s 5,000 fiber optic detectors and positioning elements are undergoing tests before starting an ambitious dark energy survey of 35 million galaxies.

X-ray observations suggest dark energy may be growing stronger

30 January 2019 Astronomy Now

Using quasars as “standard candles,” astronomers say they’ve been able to measure the effects of dark energy back to within a billion years of the Big Bang.

A swarm of robots assembled to detect effects of dark energy

27 October 2018 Astronomy Now

Astronomers, engineers and students are busy building a complex instrument that will be used with the 4-metre Mayall Telescope to probe the nature of dark energy by collecting the spectra of millions of galaxies.

Multiverse more hospitable than previously thought?

18 May 2018 Astronomy Now

A new computer analysis suggests much higher levels of dark energy would not, as many believe, prevent the formation of stars and planets, implying life might be more common across the Multiverse – assuming it exists – than previously believed.

Hubble data indicate universe growing faster than expected

23 February 2018 William Harwood

Time-consuming observations by the Hubble Space Telescope indicate the universe is expanding faster today than predicted by standard models of the big bang that incorporate dark energy.

WFIRST astronomy mission faces cuts to contain rising costs

3 November 2017 Stephen Clark

NASA has directed the team developing the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, a flagship astronomy mission set for launch in the mid-2020s to study dark energy and exoplanets, to reduce the observatory’s scientific capabilities and keep it under a $3.2 billion cost cap.

Detector trouble expected to delay ESA’s Euclid dark energy mission

23 October 2017 Stephen Clark

Technical problems discovered during ground testing of U.S.-built detectors for the European Space Agency’s Euclid astronomy mission will delay the completion of the telescope’s scientific payload, jeopardising the observatory’s 2020 launch target, the head of NASA’s astrophysics division said last week.

New supernova analysis reframes dark energy debate

18 September 2017 Astronomy Now

The accelerating expansion of the universe may not be real, but could just be an apparent effect, according to new research. The new study finds the fit of Type Ia supernovae to a model universe with no dark energy to be very slightly better than the fit to the standard dark energy model.