Rumors of a Strange Universe
Explanation:
Three years ago
results were
first presented indicating that
most of the energy in our universe is not in
stars or galaxies but is tied to space itself.
In the language of cosmologists, a large
cosmological constant is directly implied by new distant
supernovae observations.
Suggestions of a
cosmological constant (lambda) are
not new -- they have existed since the advent of
modern relativistic cosmology.
Such claims are
not usually popular with astronomers, though, because lambda is so unlike known
universe components, because
lambda's value appears limited by other observations,
and because less-strange cosmologies without lambda have
previously done well in explaining the data.
What is noteworthy here is the seemingly direct and reliable method of the observations
and the good reputations of the
scientists conducting
the investigations.
Over the past three years, two independent
teams of astronomers have continued to accumulate data
that appears to confirm the unsettling result.
The
above picture of a supernova that occurred in
1994
on the outskirts of a
spiral galaxy
was taken by one of these collaborations.
Still,
extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,
and so cosmologists the world over continue to await
more data and confirmation by independent methods.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
