- #1
sanman
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The Chandra X-Ray Observatory has revealed that galaxies aren't accumulating lots more matter over time:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1218/p01s07-usgn.html
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2008/12/new_clues_for_dark_energy_1.html
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/labnotes/archive/2008/12/16/may-the-dark-energy-be-with-you.aspx
http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars/2008/12/17/lighting-up-dark-energy
This is then attributed to the effect of "Dark Energy", more properly identified as Vacuum Energy, or Einstein's Cosmological Constant.
So to me, this means that not only can a large mass have significant gravitational force, but even a large span of empty space can have a large gravitational force associated with it.
So how can we then make use of this knowledge?
I recognize that one practical implication is that the universe is not slowing down in its expansion, but could keep going indefinitely.
And then what?
I remember some experiment by researchers at UC Riverside, showing that the Casimir Effect from vacuum energy could be turned into a nano-sized spring-device. They had 2 corrugated surfaces placed close to each other, at some miniscule separation distance, and the Casimir Effect caused the apparatus to behave like a spring.
Is Dark Energy considered to be physics beyond the Standard Model, if it's merely confirming Einstein's original conjecture on the Cosmological Constant?
Also, does this then diminish the need for Dark Matter to explain the observed nature of the universe?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1218/p01s07-usgn.html
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2008/12/new_clues_for_dark_energy_1.html
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/labnotes/archive/2008/12/16/may-the-dark-energy-be-with-you.aspx
http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars/2008/12/17/lighting-up-dark-energy
This is then attributed to the effect of "Dark Energy", more properly identified as Vacuum Energy, or Einstein's Cosmological Constant.
So to me, this means that not only can a large mass have significant gravitational force, but even a large span of empty space can have a large gravitational force associated with it.
So how can we then make use of this knowledge?
I recognize that one practical implication is that the universe is not slowing down in its expansion, but could keep going indefinitely.
And then what?
I remember some experiment by researchers at UC Riverside, showing that the Casimir Effect from vacuum energy could be turned into a nano-sized spring-device. They had 2 corrugated surfaces placed close to each other, at some miniscule separation distance, and the Casimir Effect caused the apparatus to behave like a spring.
Is Dark Energy considered to be physics beyond the Standard Model, if it's merely confirming Einstein's original conjecture on the Cosmological Constant?
Also, does this then diminish the need for Dark Matter to explain the observed nature of the universe?
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