Dark Energy and Dark Matter, Brighten the Days

Friends,

And science marches on. It is the knowledge that science is persevering in this hostile administration, that brightens our days.

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." ~Albert Einstein~

Peace and Love,

Rev O

The Struggle to Measure Cosmic Expansion New York Times
By DENNIS OVERBYE
Astronomers have made the most precise measurements yet of the Hubble constant, which measures how fast the universe is growing.

"Hoping to understand why the universe seems to be coming apart at its seams, a young astronomer and his colleagues have embarked on one of the oldest quests in cosmology, to measure how fast the universe is growing, how big it is and how old it is."

"Dr. Riess’s announcement was regarded as a hopeful beginning by other astronomers and cosmologists concerned with the fate of the universe and of physics. Knowing the precise value of the rate of expansion of the universe, they explain, has emerged as a key to understanding dark energy. The more precisely they can pin down the value of the Hubble constant, the more precisely they can pin down the properties of that enigmatic, cinematic sounding force."

"The stakes are bigger than just dark energy. Cosmologists would like to know whether their so-called standard model of the universe makes sense. Is the universe in fact 13.7 billion years old, full of dark matter and dark energy, and speckled with galaxies that grew by gravity from random microscopic fluctuations in the Big Bang?"

"Over cosmic time, gravity tries to slow the expansion while dark energy, as astronomers discovered to their surprise 10 years ago, tries to speed it up."

"It’s never going to be “Yup, now we’ve nailed it,” Dr. Riess said. “This is humankind’s quest: to be always doing this. We’re looking to always make a cleaner handoff.”

"Showing no effect of the weight of history, he said, “This is still early days.”"