Perso', concernant la cosmologie & physique en général, je suis niveau bac-3, même si j'aime cela

Moralité :We don't know what it is yet (dark energy), but now, for the first time, astronomers have clearly seen the effects of dark energy. Using the Chandra X-ray Observatory, scientists have tracked how dark energy has stifled the growth of galaxy clusters. Combining this new data with previous studies, scientists have obtained the best clues yet about what dark energy is, confirming its existence. And there's good news, too: the expanding Universe won't rip itself apart.
This result could be described as 'arrested development of the universe'," said Alexey Vikhlinin of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., who led the research. "Whatever is forcing the expansion of the universe to speed up is also forcing its development to slow down."
Previously, it wasn't known for sure if dark energy was a constant across space, with a strength that never changes with distance or time, or if it is a function of space itself and as space expands dark energy would expand and get stronger. In other words, it wasn't known if Einstein's theory of general relativity and his cosmological constant was correct or if the theory would have to be modified for large scales.
But the Chandra study strengthens the evidence that dark energy is the cosmological constant, and is not growing in strength with time, which would cause the Universe to eventually rip itself apart.
Source : http://www.universetoday.com/2008/12/16 ... rk-energy/An astronomer would say this may be a good time to fund cosmological research because further down the road there will be nothing to observe!"
Source (non vulgarisée) : http://arxiv.org/abs/0812.2720
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Buck