
Summary
Recent research challenges the long-held belief in dark energy as a fundamental component of the universe. A new analysis suggests that the apparent acceleration of the universe's expansion may be an illusion caused by time dilation effects and the distribution of matter, rather than the influence of dark energy. This alternative theory, known as "timescapes," posits that the universe's structure, with its clusters and voids, can explain observations more effectively than the standard model, Lambda CDM.
The study, led by physicist Antonio Seyfert, utilizes data from the Pantheon Plus catalog of Type Ia supernovae to compare predictions from both theories. Results indicate that timescapes may better match the observed data, particularly when considering the effects of voids expanding more rapidly than denser regions. While the findings are intriguing, experts caution against prematurely dismissing dark energy, as Lambda CDM has successfully explained a wide range of astronomical observations.
The ongoing debate highlights the dynamic nature of scientific inquiry, where established theories are continuously tested and refined. As researchers delve deeper into the implications of the timescapes model, the potential for a significant shift in our understanding of the universe looms, raising questions about the ultimate fate of cosmic expansion.
Show Notes
Did astronomers just prove dark energy is wrong? Some breaking news this week that I couldn't resist covering on here...Written, presented & edited by Prof. David Kipping.→ Support our research: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support→ Get merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cool-worlds-store→ Check out our podcast: www.youtube.com/@CoolWorldsPodcastTHANK-YOU to T. Widdowson, D. Smith, L. Sanborn, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, S. Brownlee, E. West, T. Zajonc, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, T. Jeffcoat, J. Rockett, D. Murphree, M. Sanford, T. Donkin, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, R. Ramezankhani, J. Armstrong, S. Marks, B. Smith, J. Kruger, S. Applegate, E. Zahnle, N. Gebben, J. Bergman, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, P. Kaup, W. Evans, N. Corwin, K. Howard, L. Deacon, G. Metts, R. Provost, G. Fullwood, N. De Haan, R. Williams, E. Garland, R. Lovely, A. Cornejo, D. Compos, F. Demopoulos, G. Bylinsky, J. Werner, S. Thayer, T. Edris, F. Blood, M. O'Brien, D. Lee, J. Sargent, M. Czirr, F. Krotzer, I. Williams, J. Sattler, B. Reese, O. Shabtay, X. Yao, S. Saverys, A. Nimmerjahn, C. Seay, D. Johnson, L. Cunningham, M. Morrow, M. Campbell, B. Devermont, Y. Muheim, A. Stark, C. Caminero, P. Borisoff, A. Donovan, H. Schiff, J. Cos, J. Oliver, B. Kite, C. Hansen, J. Shamp, R. Chaffee, A. Ortiz, B. McMillan, B. Cartmell, J. Bryant, J. Obioma, M. Zeiler, S. Murray, S. Patterson, C. Kennedy, G. Le Saint, W. Ruf, A. Kochkov, B. Langley, D. Ohman, P. Stevenson, T. Ford & T. Tarrants.Check out Ryan Ridden’s video at https://youtu.be/YhlPDvAdSMwREFERENCES► Seifert et al. 2024, "Supernovae evidence for foundational change to cosmological models", MNRAS Letters, 537, L55: https://www.arxiv.org/abs/2412.15143MUSICLicensed by SoundStripe.com (SS) [shorturl.at/ptBHI], Artlist.io, via CC Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) or with permission from the artist.0:00 Falls - Life in Binary4:55 Hill - There Is But One GoodCHAPTERS0:00 Prologue0:39 Evidence for Dark Energy2:50 Timescapes4:53 Testing Timescapes6:07 Is Dark Energy Cooked?7:15 Credits#DarkEnergy #Timescapes #CoolWorlds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from Cool Worlds
Our own cool world is warming up. Dr Gavin Schmidt, Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), visited the Cool Worlds Lab and explains how NASA actually measures these climatic changes and the modeling used to understand what is responsible for them.::More about this Video::► NASA GISS Surface Temperature Analysis software and data sources: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/► Outro music by Taylor Davis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl9kI1yQKZk::Playlists For Channel::Latest Cool Worlds Videos ► http://bit.ly/NewCoolWorldsCool Worlds Research ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsResearchGuest Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsGuestsQ&A Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsQAScience of TV/Film ► http://bit.ly/ScienceMovies::Follow us::SUBSCRIBE to the channel http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsSubscribeCool Worlds Lab http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.eduTwitter https://twitter.com/david_kippingInstagram https://www.instagram.com/cool.worldsTHANKS FOR WATCHING!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
There have been two scientific revolutions involving a "Kepler"- one 400 years ago and one on-going! Prof Kipping explains both and why NASA's Kepler Mission will go down in the history books as transformative.::More about this Video::► NASA's Kepler Mission website: http://kepler.nasa.gov► Burke et al. (2015), "Terrestrial Planet Occurrence Rates for the Kepler GK Dwarf Sample": http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.04175► Doyle et al. (2011), "Kepler-16: A Transiting Circumbinary Planet": http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.3432► Johansen et al. (2012), "Can planetary instability explain the Kepler dichotomy?": http://arxiv.org/abs/1206.6898► Outro music by Taylor Davis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl9kI1yQKZk::Playlists For Channel::Latest Cool Worlds Videos ► http://bit.ly/NewCoolWorldsCool Worlds Research ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsResearchGuest Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsGuestsQ&A Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsQAScience of TV/Film ► http://bit.ly/ScienceMovies::Follow us::SUBSCRIBE to the channel http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsSubscribeCool Worlds Lab http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.eduTwitter https://twitter.com/david_kippingInstagram https://www.instagram.com/cool.worldsTHANKS FOR WATCHING!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A huge thank-you to everyone who helped us reach this milestone!→ Support our research: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support→ Get merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cool-worlds-store→ Check out our podcast: www.youtube.com/@CoolWorldsPodcastTHANK-YOU to T. Widdowson, D. Smith, L. Sanborn, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, S. Brownlee, E. West, T. Zajonc, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, T. Jeffcoat, J. Rockett, D. Murphree, M. Sanford, T. Donkin, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, R. Ramezankhani, J. Armstrong, S. Marks, B. Smith, J. Kruger, S. Applegate, E. Zahnle, N. Gebben, J. Bergman, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, P. Kaup, W. Evans, N. Corwin, K. Howard, L. Deacon, G. Metts, R. Provost, G. Fullwood, N. De Haan, R. Williams, E. Garland, R. Lovely, A. Cornejo, D. Compos, F. Demopoulos, G. Bylinsky, J. Werner, S. Thayer, T. Edris, F. Blood, M. O'Brien, D. Lee, J. Sargent, M. Czirr, F. Krotzer, I. Williams, J. Sattler, B. Reese, O. Shabtay, X. Yao, S. Saverys, A. Nimmerjahn, C. Seay, D. Johnson, L. Cunningham, M. Morrow, M. Campbell, B. Devermont, Y. Muheim, A. Stark, C. Caminero, P. Borisoff, A. Donovan, H. Schiff, J. Cos, J. Oliver, B. Kite, C. Hansen, J. Shamp, R. Chaffee, A. Ortiz, B. McMillan, B. Cartmell, J. Bryant, J. Obioma, M. Zeiler, S. Murray, S. Patterson, C. Kennedy, G. Le Saint, W. Ruf, A. Kochkov, B. Langley, D. Ohman, P. Stevenson, T. Ford, T. Tarrants, A. Laroye, I. Venzor, R. Raszka, B. Gaalen, A. Taylor, D. Wedgewood, J. Alley, D. Aron, G. Thomsen, S. Shardool, B. Kingston, A. Phan Le, N. Voyton, N. Offor, A. Huch, J. Morrison & C. Fitzsimmons.CHAPTERS0:00 AMA0:18 Ultimate Telescope4:32 YouTuber Academic7:27 Unscientific Belief9:58 If Not Astronomy...12:46 Origins Story18:05 What I Suck At20:24 Crisis in Physics25:16 Will We Confirm Life?28:19 K167e Update31:49 Coping with Setbacks36:46 Wildest Hunch40:03 Fermi Paradox Solution43:26 Personal Inspirations46:33 Mental Health Advise50:20 Career Advise54:29 Longer Healthspans59:13 Breakfast?59:51 BH Singularities1:00:51 Life Evidence1:03:48 Sci-Fi Books1:05:29 Terrascope Update1:09:12 Science Sensationalism1:13:09 AI Good or Bad?1:15:24 Creativity Advise1:19:06 Thank-you1:19:51 Outro and Credits#AMA #CoolWorlds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alien megastructures are back in the headlines after some new research published last week. It has been claimed that Tabby's Star is confirmed to be steadily dimming, which is completely unexpected behavior for a star. Prof Kipping explains what we know (and don't know) about this mysterious star and what astronomers really mean by "alien megastructures".::More about this Video::► Montet & Simon (2016), "KIC 8462852 Faded Throughout the Kepler Mission": http://arxiv.org/abs/1608.01316► Schaefer (2016), "KIC 8462852 Faded at an Average Rate of 0.165+-0.013 Magnitudes Per Century From 1890 To 1989": http://arxiv.org/abs/1601.03256► Boyajian et al. (2016), "Planet Hunters X. KIC 8462852 - Where's the Flux?": https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.03622► Arnold (2005), "Transit Lightcurve Signatures of Artificial Objects": http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0503580► Kipping & Teachey (2016), "A Cloaking Device for Transiting Planets": http://arxiv.org/abs/1603.08928► Outro music by Taylor Davis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl9kI1yQKZk::Playlists For Channel::Latest Cool Worlds Videos ► http://bit.ly/NewCoolWorldsCool Worlds Research ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsResearchGuest Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsGuestsQ&A Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsQAScience of TV/Film ► http://bit.ly/ScienceMovies::Follow us::SUBSCRIBE to the channel http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsSubscribeCool Worlds Lab http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.eduTwitter https://twitter.com/david_kippingInstagram https://www.instagram.com/cool.worldsTHANKS FOR WATCHING!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The transit method of finding exoplanets is easier for big planets than small planets. But new work from the Cool Worlds Lab shows that transits disfavor the detection of small, Earth-sized planets even more than previously realized. Emily Sandford, a third-year graduate student with the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia, explains our new paper which derives these biases, allowing astronomers to correct for these effects when figuring out how many Earths there really are.::More about this Video::► Kipping & Sandford (2016), "Observational biases for transiting planets": http://arxiv.org/abs/1603.05662► Outro music by Taylor Davis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl9kI1yQKZk::Playlists For Channel::Latest Cool Worlds Videos ► http://bit.ly/NewCoolWorldsCool Worlds Research ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsResearchGuest Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsGuestsQ&A Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsQAScience of TV/Film ► http://bit.ly/ScienceMovies::Follow us::SUBSCRIBE to the channel http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsSubscribeCool Worlds Lab http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.eduTwitter https://twitter.com/david_kippingInstagram https://www.instagram.com/cool.worldsTHANKS FOR WATCHING!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices