Has a new study shown DARK ENERGY doesn't exist?!

You know I wanted a nice quiet return to work this January but turns out a paper came out just before Christmas claiming that dark energy doesn’t exist, so this week I’m diving into all the details. So back in 1998 astronomers noticed that galaxies further away from us were further away from us than could be explained by the Universe, space, expanding at a constant rate. They concluded the Universe was accelerating in its expansion, they even won a Nobel Prize for this, and we call the thing that’s driving this accelerated expansion dark energy, we just don’t know what that is. But then back in 2007, a kiwi astronomer David Wiltshire published a paper with another idea, that you have to take into account how time itself changes. Because the thing with measuring the rate of something, in this case how much bigger space has grown in a certain amount of time, is that the time can also change. Einstein’s theory of general relativity tells us that in a stronger gravity, you experience time at a slower rate. Whereas in weaker gravity time passes quicker. We’ve even proven this with atomic clocks flown on planes far above the surface of the Earth. So in our galaxy, the Milky Way, the gravity is much stronger than in the voids between galaxies, with David Wiltshire calculating as large as a 38% difference between the time on clocks in the Milky Way and those in voids. If more time passes in voids, then the Universe will have expanded more in those regions of space, making it look like the universe has accelerated its expansion. It’s a neat idea, but that’s all it was back in 2007 an idea, but now with this new paper that’s been published they claim to have data that supports this idea, and does away with the need for “dark energy” and an accelerating expanding universe. But does it? And what knock-on effects does this have? If you want to know more about this with all the juicy details, check out my Night Sky News video for January 2025 which comes out on 16th January.

#shorts #space #science #physics #cosmology

[j.pritchard]

I absolutely love when someone communicates something so well that I physically FEEL smarter from listening. Thank you for the time and energy you've put into that skill itself. It's mind blowing.

[lokilawson]

Ugh, that was such a tease! But, you can bet I will be watching that episode of NSN when it comes out. Dr Becky has a way of doing a thorough job of reviewing the science and giving a realistic take on what it can and cannot (yet) tell us. This is why I love Dr Becky’s content.

[ianlarue]

Great way to use short-form to promote long-form! Excited for your take.

[seraphuziel]

I was hoping you'd hop on this :)

[davidsanders]

I always enjoy your videos but...the next one sounds AWESOME.

[rafazieba]

Finally an explanation better than "because there is something we don't know what that is doing we don't know what and we can't see it".

[victorquesada]

Intuitively it makes a lot of sense that there is just an unexplained or unaccounted for effect in something that we already have and understanding of, rather than some mysterious third force out there in the universe that is accelerating the expansion universe. Then again, I'm just a middle school science teacher, and I haven't done any of the heavy lifting for math outside of physics one, but I'm truly grateful for this kind of content that lets me at least stay awake and aware of what's happening in modern physics rather than being stuck with just Carl Sagan, (no offence, but I don't think anyone wants to be trapped in the 1980's view of science permanently)

[jamescanada]

Time dilation is such a fascinating concept to consider in the explanation of galactic time

[nawack]

Thank you for the update and happy new year !

[JohnGraybosch]

Thanks for all the deep dives and juicy details! Looking forward to it. 😎

[N_]

Every time NSN keeps getting more and more interesting, gotta love it

[stoatystoat]

It's very good that tell us if something is just a neat idea or a theory or can be an experiment. The regular news will mostly present all those things as new 'science facts'

[RaeanneNichol]

Thank you so much for the update. What an interesting paper to get to read and of course think about.❤

[JAJAJA]

Juicy 🎉 What a great way to start the year.

[theoriginaldrdust]

genuinely cool idea (idk why but cool feels like the best word here)

[jameswilliams]

Not many physics lecture teasers that leave us disappointed we have to wait. Well done. 😂

[LeftCoastStephen]

I’ve been reading the headlines on this and saying to myself: “Becky will have a good explanation”. I wake up this morning and see this and it turns out to be a trailer for the main show in 2 weeks. Imagine my disappointment 😮☹️😖

😉

[blazingskulls]

Hello, i am a new viewer and im liking your content. One suggestion would be to upload shorts after the main video is up cause no one is going to remember to come back the main video after watching the short 2 weeks ago. Instead if i could directly click on the link that takes me to the related video right away… just a suggestion to get more people to your wonderful longform content

[roger]

Love this! Makes so much sense. I've always had my doubts about an exotic, undetectable dark energy accelerating universal expansion. Occam's razor has never been so sharp! Looking forward to the video Dr Becky. Thank you.

[chriskibbe]

A thorough and peer review process will most likely weed out some things, however it is very refreshing that thinking outside the norms is still so alive and well.

On scale of 1 to 100, we know a fraction above 0 as to how the universe works, if there even is a universe. The moment when we finally figure it all out, we will cease to exist.