New 3D map of space dramatically raises questions about the future of the universe

Scientists say a new 3D space map raises questions about the future of the universe. Researchers say the results of the map, which contains three times more galaxies than previous work, could challenge the standard understanding of dark energy.

Scientists have presented the largest three-dimensional map of the Universe in history, depicting more than 6 million galaxies. According to them, this raises questions about the nature of dark energy and the future of the Universe.

According to The Guardian, the map is based on data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopy Instrument (Desi) in Arizona, and contains three times more galaxies than in previous studies, and the distances to many of them were measured for the first time.

The researchers said that using this map, they were able to measure with unprecedented precision how quickly the universe was expanding at different times in the past.

The results confirm that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating, the scientists added. However, the findings also raise the tantalizing possibility that dark energy – the mysterious repulsive force that drives the process – is not constant over time, as previously thought, writes The Guardian.

Dr Seshadri Nadathur, co-author of the paper and senior research fellow at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravity at the University of Portsmouth, said: “What we’re seeing are some hints that it has actually changed over time, which is quite interesting because it’s not , which is accepted in the standard model of outer space. The cosmological constant of dark energy would look like this.”

Professor Carlos Frenk from Durham University and co-author of the study emphasizes that if dark energy is truly constant over time, then the future of the Universe is simple: it will expand further and further, forever. But if the clues found on the map were confirmed, this would be called into question.

“Now all this is out of scope, and, in essence, we have to start from scratch, and this means reconsidering our understanding of fundamental physics, our understanding of the big bang itself and our understanding of the long-term forecast for the development of the Universe,” the professor said, adding that new clues remain open to the possibility that the universe may undergo a “big crunch.”

The study, which was published as a series of preprints—meaning it has not yet been peer-reviewed—shows how the team first created a 3D map and then measured patterns in the distribution of galaxies that are associated with sound waves generated in the early Universe , known as baryon acoustic oscillations.

Because the sizes of these structures are known to be constant, the team was able to calibrate the distances to the various galaxies on the map, allowing them to determine how fast the Universe has grown over the past 11 billion years, with an accuracy of better than 0.5% over all time and better than 1% between 8 and 11 billion years ago.

Carlos Frank says the accuracy of the measurements was remarkable, given that galaxies can be billions of light years away and billions of years old. “It’s mind-boggling that we can measure anything with an accuracy of 1%, which is the accuracy you get in a physics lab when making high-precision measurements,” he said.

Andrew Pontzen, professor of cosmology at University College London and author of The Universe in a Box, who was not involved in the work, comments that Desi is one of many exciting new astronomical studies cataloging the night sky, one of the main goals of which is to measure the speed at which our planet moves. the expansion of the universe has accelerated.

“Like measuring the acceleration of a car, graphing the expansion of the universe tells us about the “engine” that powers cosmic acceleration. This engine is known as dark energy,” he said.

However, Pontzen noted that our knowledge of how dark energy works is limited. “The new data, combined with existing measurements, would seem to contradict the simplest possible explanations for dark energy,” he said. “At first glance, this is an exciting step forward. But as the researchers themselves caution, there is still much to understand in these data, and the early results should be taken seriously.”