Galaxies today are struggling to clump together against the incredible repulsive power of dark energy, hints a new survey of thousands of galaxies. Measuring this anti-clumping effect puts a new arrow in the quiver of cosmologists seeking to uncover the nature of the mysterious force.
Scientists proposed the existence of a mysterious repulsive force called dark energy in 1998 to explain supernova observations showing the universe is expanding at ever faster rates.
Since then, researchers have been trying to measure the properties of dark energy more precisely, in the hope of discovering what it is. Possible explanations include fluctuating energy fields from quantum physics and the effects of unseen extra spatial dimensions. In some scenarios, the strength of dark energy changes with time in characteristic ways.
Now, a study led by Luigi Guzzo of Brera Astronomical Observatory in Merate, Italy, may pave the way for researchers to decide between the different theories. They wanted to see if dark energy had any effect on the motion of galaxies at different times since the big bang.
