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Dark energy study challenges the universe’s standard model
The long-accepted understanding of dark energy, the mysterious force believed to drive the universe’s accelerating expansion, is facing renewed scrutiny after an international research team proposed that it may not be constant over time. Data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), which analyzed over 15 million galaxies and quasars, show unexpected variations that deviate from what cosmologists have long considered a cornerstone of modern astrophysics.
Scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, reported that their findings could indicate that dark energy evolves differently than previously assumed, suggesting gaps in the standard cosmological model. Their analysis points to subtle shifts in the expansion rate of the universe, appearing inconsistent with the idea of a static, unchanging force.
According to the research team, the results expose tensions between observations of the early and late universe, echoing the well-known “Hubble tension”—a longstanding discrepancy in how fast the cosmos is expanding. While the Big Bang theory remains the dominant framework explaining the origin and evolution of the universe, new data challenge the precision of the parameters on which it relies.
Astrophysicist Adam Riess of Johns Hopkins University noted that these results are testing the limits of models used for the past 25 years. He emphasized that as data from advanced instruments like DESI and the James Webb Space Telescope accumulate, scientists may need to refine or expand current cosmological theories to fully understand how the universe behaves on the largest scales.
