New method 'confirms dark energy'

First results from a major astronomical survey have confirmed the existence of mysterious dark energy using a cutting-edge technique.

Dark energy makes up some 74% of the Universe and its existence explains why the Universe appears to be expanding at an accelerating rate.

Scientists used two separate kinds of observation to provide an independent check on previous dark energy results.

Two papers by an international team of researchers have been accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society journal.

One type of observation used by the astronomers involves measuring a pattern in how galaxies are distributed in space. This pattern is known by the term "baryon acoustic oscillations".

The second type of observation involves measuring how quickly clusters of galaxies have formed over time. Both of these techniques confirmed the existence of dark energy and the acceleration in the expansion of the Universe.

Ptolemy's epicycles work well enough also

But there's one place dark matter/energy doesn't work at all. Binary / Multiple star systems.

We know of thousands if not millions of multiple star systems, all of them obey Kelper's laws of motion.

If there was some Dark Matter or Dark Energy making up 90-98% of the mass of a galaxy, even if somehow our solar system is in a "dry" pocket and unaffected many/most other star systems around the galaxy should be gravitationally greatly affected by it.

So if the was DE/DM, it would be pulling on these stars and many of the companion stars would have wild perturbations and orbits which would make it appear (to us on Earth) that they are not obeying Kepler's laws.

But that's not what we see. All multiple star systems behave in a nice a ordinary way.

TRD — I admire someone who can talk sense, forth-rightly and without weasel-wording.

As an observer — I’m an engineer, NOT a physicist / cosmologist / etc. — I have been simply amazed for some time at the reckless proliferation of particles, fields, dimensions, universes, dark matter/energy, ad infinitum, to ‘fix’ the unfixable inconsistencies, contradictions, inadequacies and general ‘incompleteness’ of all the competing ‘theories’ about what makes the Universe ‘exist’ as it appears to be content to be.

I am quite aware that we have only been at this effort for ‘only’ about 500 years or so ( compared to a generally accepted 15 Billion or so years that the Universe has been at whatever IT is doing ) and that ‘only’ a few tens of thousands of humanity have contributed meaningfully to this program of discovery.

What boggles MY mind is the finality with which it is stated that, f’rinstance, “74% of the Universe is comprised of so-called ‘dark matter’ and 22% is comprised or ‘dark energy’. That leaves only 4% or so for all the non-dark energy / matter ‘stuff’ — you know, stars, planets, galaxies, particles of matter and the various photons, neutrinos, and so forth. Did I leave out anything important ?

Of course, we cannot detect, capture, measure or even describe any of this ‘dark stuff’ in any meaningful way ... “. But, of course, we CAN state authoritatively that this ‘dark stuff’ finding somehow confirms Einstein’s General Relativity ( if you treat it as the cosmological constant he used and subsequently abandoned ). Further, it gives us a handle on reconciling Einstein and ‘strings’ and QCD and all the other unreconcilables. Ain’t THAT ‘grand’ ?

Want proof ? Why, we just surveyed 200,000 Galaxies and measured their “baryon acoustic oscillations” with such precision that we UNDERSTAND — Totally ! — why they’re distributed about as they are. We even observed and measured just how quickly these 200,000 Galaxies formed over the past 15 Billion years. Spent nearly 5 years doin’ it, too ! Now, how’s that for commitment, dedication, engagement and stick-to-itiveness ?

And you want Authority ? We even got our results published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Peer reviewed and what all else you want ?

It is arrogant beyond all understanding how this kind of thing can be stated or viewed as anything BUT the wispiest speculation, conjecture, hypothesis or something else equally unreal.

It ain’t facts, yet, not even close. It ain’t even any kind of ‘theory’, yet, until someone comes along with a useful way to ‘falsify’ it and that gets tested, repeatably.

One Man’s Opinion

21stCenturion

I'm not buying what the physics community is selling.

Articles like these, make it sound as though the theorists have cracked the major secrets of the universe, and yet, we still don't have a practical and functioning anti-gravity technology, or a faster-than-light drive.

Hawking sits around proclaiming that there's no afterlife, and pontificating about the weirdness of black holes, yet hasn't produced a theorem that can be turned into a practical technological advance of any kind.

I'm beginning to see people like him as little more than professional leeches of the intellectual class.

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