Is dark matter a worldwide delusion?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The universe was left without a phenomenon! The "dark energy" that has been searched for for 20 years does not exist at all! Such sensational reports came from the Congress of the American Astronomical Society. It was not only the famous "dark energy" that was rejected.

Much stronger was the statement that the Universe does not scatter with acceleration, as physicists claimed. By the way, in 2011 it was for this discovery that the Australian and two Americans were awarded the Nobel Prize. And now everything is turning upside down: it is necessary to revise the generally accepted model of the Universe. This conclusion follows from the work of astronomers at the South Korean University of Yonse and the University of Lyon.

Recall that "dark energy" has a long history. The great Einstein stood at its origins, and supposedly this was the main mistake of his life.

He tried in 1917 to apply the General Theory of Relativity, which he had just created, to describe the universe. And suddenly I ran into an unsolvable problem. According to centuries-old concepts, the Universe was considered eternal and unchanging, in a word, static. But in Einstein's formulas, she suddenly came to life, moved. How to restore her peace? The scientist introduced a new element into his equations, the so-called cosmological constant. And everything returned to its place. Peace reigned.

However, not for long. In 1929, the American astronomer Hubble discovered that the universe is expanding, and in it the Einstein constant is simply superfluous. She left the stage. It seemed like forever. Many years passed, and she suddenly returned from almost nothing. Everything changed after observing supernovae, scientists made one of the most sensational discoveries of the 20th century: the Universe is scattering with acceleration. This phenomenon was called universal antigravitation.

He changed the picture of the scientific world. Until recently, she seemed so slender. The Big Bang spawned a universe with many galaxies. Having received a powerful initial impulse, they scatter, but due to mutual attraction this happens with a slowdown. And now, it turns out, everything is completely different, but exactly the opposite.

What drives them? Does it make you fly with acceleration, overcome the force of gravity? Today physicists believe that this is a phenomenon that they call "dark energy" associated with the very same Einstein's constant. The most amazing thing is that in the first 7-8 billion years of its existence, the Universe really expanded with a deceleration, and then, for more than 7 billion years, there has been an acceleration. And then it will only grow stronger, and for an unlimited time.

According to scientists, the share of "dark energy" accounts for about 67 percent of the world's energy, while the so-called dark or invisible matter - 30 percent and the usual visible - all stars and planets - only 3 percent. And now a team of astronomers from Yonsei University, together with colleagues from the University of Lyon and KASI, took aim at the formed picture of the world. After analyzing large databases, the scientists stated that astrophysicists made the conclusion about the expansion of the Universe on the basis of a serious measurement error. This means that there is no need to introduce the concept of "dark energy". It turns out that science has been looking for a phenomenon for more than 20 years, which in fact does not exist at all. By the way, in this case, Einstein's constant is still superfluous.

Note that this is not the first attack on "dark energy". And earlier there were works where its existence was questioned. But the latest study, according to many experts, looks like the most reasoned."Our results indicate that the Nobel Prize-winning hypothesis of 'dark energy' based on supernova cosmology may be based on an unreliable and simply flawed assumption," said study leader Yong Wook Lee. However, critics of this work point to its weak point: a small database on the basis of which revolutionary conclusions are drawn.

Today, there are several experimental installations in the world that try to catch "dark energy", but it has never fallen into the grid. However, the scientists themselves admit that they are looking almost blindly, because they still do not know exactly what to catch. What is the material carrier of this phenomenon. Candidates are considered to be WIMP particles that have appeared in theorists' formulas. But so far the theory has not been confirmed by experiment.

The term "dark energy" originated at the end of the 20th century. It is associated with observations of supernovae, which from time to time flare up brightly in the sky. These stars are used to determine cosmological distances. In 1998, scientists in the United States and Australia almost simultaneously discovered one oddity: the most distant supernovae do not shine as brightly as the formulas prescribed. This means that they are located farther from us than they should be if the Universe expanded in the field of ordinary gravitational forces. Hence the sensational conclusion: with a certainty of 99 percent, it can be argued that there must be some additional energy in the Universe that is opposed to gravity. This is how "dark energy" appeared.

A comment

Anatoly Cherepashchuk, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Nobel is simply not given, even if some scientists managed to get a breakthrough result. More evidence from other independent groups is needed. For example, when in 2016 gravitational waves were discovered during the merger of black holes and scientists were nominated for the Nobel, they did not receive the award. Only the next year, when experiments in Italy yielded similar results, did the prize find its heroes.

As far as "dark energy" is concerned, this is a difficult area to research. There the game goes on at very small values. For example, the signals from supernovae, on the study of which all these theories, assumptions and sensations are based, are very weak, they are difficult to measure. Everything is at the limit. In such conditions, you can "stretch" any result. Therefore, one result is always not enough, a sum of convincing independent evidence is needed. And with this the opponents of "dark energy" have problems so far. But the position of the supporters is much stronger. Over the past 20 years, a lot of new evidence has been obtained both from reliable observations of supernovae and as a result of a number of other studies, in particular, measurements of relic radiation and observations of galaxy clusters.

Great hopes of scientists are now associated with the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma project, which is supposed to study 100 thousand galaxy clusters. As a result, a huge amount of information will be obtained, which, I think, will finally clarify the situation with "dark energy".