Is the Universe's Expansion Rate Actually Slowing Down?

[saywhat]

Most articles sate that basically the further away an object is, the faster it is moving away from us therefore the universe is expanding faster which leads to dark energy to explain the increasing accelaration
But as we see distant objects as they were in the past due to the finite speed of light isn't this also equivalent to saying :
"when we look further back in time, things were accelerating apart faster then they are now" which implies the rate of expansion is slowing?
thanks.

 

[bcrowell]

Most articles sate that basically the further away an object is, the faster it is moving away from us therefore the universe is expanding faster which leads to dark energy to explain the increasing accelaration

You don't quite have this right. The proportionality of recession velocity to distance just shows that the universe is expanding. To show that the expansion is accelerating requires breaking the simple proportionality. You're using "increasing acceleration" to mean "increasing velocity." Velocity increases even if the acceleration is constant.

 

[vikramblue]

the universe had a inflationary period when it expanded very fast.then it slowed down.presently the universe is expanding with increased acceleration.
the expansion rate is about 2 to 20 times speed of light.(not sure)

Adam Riess and his team observed quite a few galaxies in this way, and figured just how fast the Universe is growing to unprecedented accuracy. His result: 74.2 ±3.6 kilometers/second/megaparsec. That means for every megaparsec (about 3 million light years) you go out, the Universe is expanding 74.2 km/sec faster. So a galaxy 10 Mpc away would be moving away from us at 742 km/sec. Adam’s measurement jibes well with other measurements, so there is reason to be confident in his results.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/05/07/the-universe-is-expanding-at-742-kmsecmpc/

 

[bcrowell]

the expansion rate is about 2 to 20 times speed of light.(not sure)

The expansion rate can't be measured in units of speed. The speed of one galaxy relative to another depends on distance.