The Universe is expanding faster than the laws of physics can explain

[n2doc]

The most precise measurement ever made of the current rate of expansion of the Universe has been achieved by physicists in the US, and there’s a problem: the Universe is expanding 8 percent faster than our current laws of physics can explain.

If confirmed by independent tests, this new measurement will force us to rethink how dark matter and dark energy have been influencing the evolution of the Universe for the past 13.8 billion years, and that means something in the standard model of particle physics has to change.

"I think that there is something in the standard cosmological model that we don't understand," lead researcher Adam Riess from Johns Hopkins University, who also co-discovered dark energy back in 1998, told Davide Castelvecchi at Nature.

So… wtf just happened? Well, right now, physicists explain the gradual expansion of the Universe - which has been in effect since the Big Bang - by the presence of dark matter and dark energy.

more

http://www.sciencealert.com/the-universe-is-expanding-faster-than-the-laws-of-physics-can-explain?perpetual=yes&limitstart=1

[LiberalArkie]

1. It is just trying to get as far as possible from this planet.

[eomer]

3. But that's what can't be explained - since this planet sucks so bad.

[daleanime]

7. If I were truly an Evil Bernie Bro I would explain....

that sucking always leads to expansion.

but that would be bad, so I won't.

[Warren DeMontague]

19. PORTALS! PORTALS TO DEMONIC REALMS!

[dixiegrrrrl]

34. first 4 replies are SO Duzy worthy.

[Warren DeMontague]

2. WHO FARTED?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

18. Why does beer always get the blame?

[MisterP]

5. found the Velikovskite!

[Maedhros]

10. So, you're smarter than thousands of astrophysicists?

I'm not, but I'm clever enough to spot foolishness when I see it.

/ignore.

[sakabatou]

6. We know that space-time itself can travel faster than light, correct?

[Uncle Joe]

8. It would have to, without space-time you would have no light, therefor space-time must precede light

[sakabatou]

14. So in essence, it's saying that it's speeding up more than current models

[Uncle Joe]

22. Perhaps dark matter is space and dark energy is time?

[sakabatou]

24. That'd be weird.

[Duppers]

25. Ah, nope.

According to a brief explanation my son gave me, dark energy and dark matter are things within our universe and space-time itself. He said that's like saying if we're in a sleeping bag then we are the sleeping bag. Yes, he has to use very simplified analogies for me.

Why do I ask my son? Because next month, he's walking across the stage to receive his PhD in high-energy theory at JHU--in the same dept. as Adam Riess.

Dave Kaplan http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/seven-years-500-hours-footage-capture-particle-fever/ was his first major prof, but Dave was spending too much time producing the documentary to continue being a faculty advisor.

[Uncle Joe]

27. Be the ball

Congratulations to your son, Duppers.

[Duppers]

30. :D

Thank you! I'm a proud mama.

Ever see the movie Bagger Vance? This clip reminds me of a serious scene in that movie where Matt Damon send the golf ball into a stand of trees and Will Smith (Bagger Vance) uses the one-with-the-ball psychology to help him out. Good movie. Too bad that technique doesn't work in physics.

It'll be surprising if Einstein is finally proven wrong in any way. Just my 2 cents. Although physicists have come a long way in understanding its complexities, nature is stranger than we could have imagined and what's left to understand is mind blowing.

[Uncle Joe]

32. I loved that movie.

I agree on all counts, Duppers, peace to you.

[cstanleytech]

33. Stop posting now please, you are making my tiny little brain hurt. nt

[Thor_MN]

9. Big deal, so is my waistline...

The good thing about science is that when "Laws" are broken, they get redefined.

[mn9driver]

11. This obviously means that Gravity is a hoax.

Physicists all over the world have created this hoax for their own nefarious (probably Communist) purposes!

Their scheme is unraveling before our eyes!






insert sarcasm thingy here if required.

[ToxMarz]

15. Damn you, I just banged my head on the ceiling

[saturnsring]

12. i thought guth already explained this

[Augiedog]

13. Expanding or inflating? There is difference and it matters. Nothing in the universe has ever

stopped moving.

[itsrobert]

20. Wow. I was just having this thought that the universe is

Inflating like a beachball. And my thought was the black holes are feeding the inflation. Probably, totatlly wrong and dumb thought.

[dixiegrrrrl]

35. If teh universe DOES expand like a beachball

that explains the Big Bang....

See? I can gets sciency stuff too!

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. What they've measured is current expansion

Here's the paper: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1604.01424v1.pdf

But, since their estimate for the current rate of expansion is more than theory gives from Cosmic Microwave Background measurements which involves going right back to the start of the universe, it has implications for what inflation has happened since then.

"If we take the conflict between Planck high-redshift measurements and our local determination of H0 at face value, one plausible explanation could involve an additional source of dark radiation in the early Universe in the range of ∆Neff ? 0.4?1.
...
A significant disagreement would provide evidence for fundamental physics beyond the standard model, such as time-dependent or early dark energy, gravitational physics beyond General Relativity, additional relativistic particles, or nonzero curvature. Indeed, none of these features has been excluded by anything more compelling than a theoretical preference for simplicity over complexity. In the case of dark energy, there is no simple explanation at present, leaving direct measurements as the only guide among numerous complex or highly tuned explanations."

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. It's all a practical joke by The Great Attractor.....

He thinks it's funny as hell.

[LiberalEsto]

17. Too many donuts n/t

[Silent3]

21. I'm waiting for someone to blame this on gluten. n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

26. Annie Hall recall

[Califonz]

28. Ignoring the obvious explanation?

Our universe accelerating toward one or more other universes so old that all their galaxies merged into black holes trillions of years ago. Or maybe it's turtles all the way down.

[thereismore]

29. That is not accurate. The rate of expansion can be "explained" with a certain value of cosmological

constant, but physicists would like to have a deeper understanding of what that number represents. What is that "stuff" we got to call dark energy.

[Duppers]

31. +10