Photos Superclusters and Supervoids
The measurements are difficult to make because tiny variations in the Big Bang remnant waves are larger than the observable effects of intervening galaxy clusters and voids. But by grouping together data from background radiation maps of the 50 largest galaxy clusters and the 50 largest voids, researchers were able to come up with a finding they say has only a one in 200,000 chance of being a statistical fluke. The data was taken from Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which has mapped the distribution of galaxies in about 25 percent of the sky. Previous dark energy studies have a one in 20 chance of being statistically coincidental, Szapudi said. Dark energy was discovered about 10 years ago and is considered the leading outstanding puzzle in cosmology today. "In the last six or seven billion years, the expansion of the universe has switched over from slowing down to speeding up, meaning that dark energy is becoming more dominant in controlling the growth of the universe," Hinshaw said. "As the universe expands, matter gets more and more dilute and dark energy gets more and more dominate." Szapudi's research will be published in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal. Related Links: |
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