(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Researchers propose a plausible Source for Dark Energy [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-18 The Cosmic Web stretching the limits of human comprehension ... — — First off, what is Dark Energy and why does it matter? It is one of the great unanswered questions in the science of Astronomy. Dark Energy is the “fudge factor” in otherwise precise mathematical equations; Dark Energy is the “unknown force” that is postulated to explain the expansion of the Universe, counter-acting what we know about the effects of Gravity. And Dark Energy makes up about 70% of the Universe’s Total Energy budget, if it indeed exists. The “stuff” we can see and directly measure — makes up that tiny 5% slice of the Universe, called “Normal Matter” But no one knows what Dark Energy is. What causes it? Why it makes up such a large proportion of “stuff” in the Universe. So either the math is wrong, or the theories are wrong, or Astrophysicists have much more to learn about all that “stuff” — that has resulted in “us” ... One of my favorite YouTube Astrophysicists, Dr. Becky Smethurst explains this Dark Energy conundrum very well: Dark matter: smooth or clumpy?! | The Dark Energy Survey Results! — And on the closely related topic, this “Dark Energy force” very much plays an outsized role [about 5:00 time-mark]: JWST just made the "Crisis in Cosmology" WORSE — Here’s an amazing screen shot from that first video [2:10 time-mark]: The amazing thing about that top-down view of the Cosmic Web, is explained in its caption. — — And now that you have the Dark Energy back-story, onto the click-worthy “news” of the post’s title … Second off, what is this newly proposed source of Dark Energy? News that should make it to the popular press, assuming it is valid/validated? (or just plain gets the recognition that it rightly deserves ...) Wait ... Did We Finally Find the Source of Dark Energy?! by Jackie Appel, Popular Mechanics — Feb 16, 2023 We may have just found the source of dark energy. No, seriously. A set of two new papers led by researchers at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa propose that dark energy is produced by a combination of black holes and the expansion of the universe. [Duncan Farrah et al 2023] [...] So, a few years ago, the team proposed a concept that could make things line up a bit better: cosmological coupling. This is the idea that not only is the mass of the black hole influenced by the stars it eats and any other black holes it merges with—it’s influenced by the expansion of the universe itself. That’s not quite as wild as it seems. If a black hole expands along with the universe , that expansion generates energy. And because energy and mass are linked through everyone’s favorite physics equation, e=mc², if the energy increases, the mass increases with it. [...] The team calculated that these black holes that formed billions of years ago are anywhere from seven to 20 times more massive than similar, recently formed black holes. [...] To avoid stretching the bounds of “fair use” any further, I’ll leave the excerpts at that. But article is quite readable, if you are interested in this kind of stuff. Most Galaxies have a Black Hole at their centers, holding the entire place together. This discovery is significant, if it can be further validated by other studies. That 70% slice of the “unknown” Universal Pie, could be shifted into the “known” category. Very nice. Once again showing the importance and utility of the humanity’s Scientific Method. __ __ Now if they can just explain what Dark Matter is. That other piece of the Universal Pie (making up about 25% of the energy in the Universe). The postulated “stuff” that explains the effect on gravity on spinning objects — like Galaxies. Dark Matter is what keeps those spiral arms marching in place. Once again “stuff” that no one can see, but that we “know is there.” Stuff we can only infer from the application of the Scientific Method and the capacity of the human mind to think and imagine. To theorize, and one day discover. You know, to hopefully make the world a better place. Given those amazing moments of insight and inspiration, that this apex species is capable of, in our better moments … E = M*C*C … Converted Energy equals the Mass times the Speed of Light squared. Just imagine it. It’s why the Sun takes so loooong to burn out, after all. The Carina Nebula, peering through the 'dust of time' -- aka the remnants of Super Novas, that has become a star-forming region. Thanks to the James Web Space Telescope (JWST) — you know, just Science doing its thing … revealing who and what we really are. — — PS. Since Dr. Becky’s expertise is in the study of Black Holes, expect her to break down these new discoveries rather soon. Stay tuned. We live in a wondrous universe, it would be a shame if anything STUPID happened to it. Or if we sat by and just let it happen ... ... This Low-Cost Carbon Dioxide Splitter Just Changed The Game For Solar-Powered CO2 Reduction www.sciencealert.com — June 2017 news.ncsu.edu — — [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/18/2153689/-Researchers-propose-a-plausible-Source-for-Dark-Energy Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/