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elbisivni

Registered: 10/01/06
Posts: 2,839
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Super-computer Could Throw Light On 'Mysterious' Dark Energy
#7860981 - 01/10/08 06:43 PM (16 years, 22 days ago) |
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Results of the simulations, carried out by Durham University's world-leading Institute for Computational Cosmology (ICC), tell researchers how to measure dark energy -- a repulsive force that counteracts gravity.
The findings will also provide vital input into the design of a proposed satellite mission called SPACE -- the SPectroscopic All-sky Cosmic Explorer - that could unveil the nature of dark energy.
The discovery of dark energy in 1998 was completely unexpected and understanding its nature is one of the biggest problems in physics.
Scientists believe dark energy, which makes up 70 per cent of the Universe, is driving its accelerating expansion. If this expansion continues to accelerate experts say it could eventually lead to a Big Freeze as the Universe is pulled apart and becomes a vast cold expanse of dying stars and black holes.
The simulations, which took 11 days to run on Durham's unique Cosmology Machine (COSMA) computer, looked at tiny ripples in the distribution of matter in the Universe made by sound waves a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang.
The ripples are delicate and some have been destroyed over the subsequent 13 billion years of the Universe, but the simulations showed they survived in certain conditions.
By changing the nature of dark energy in the simulations, the researchers discovered that the ripples appeared to change in length and could act as a "standard ruler" in the measurement of dark energy.
ICC Director Professor Carlos Frenk said: "The ripples are a 'gold standard'. By comparing the size of the measured ripples to the gold standard we can work out how the Universe has expanded and from this figure out the properties of the dark energy.
ScienceDaily (Jan. 11, 2008) — Cosmologists have run a series of huge computer simulations of the Universe that could ultimately help solve the mystery of dark energy.
"Astronomers are stuck with the one universe we live in. However, the simulations allow us to experiment with what might have happened if there had been more or less dark energy in the universe."
In the next five to 10 years a number of experiments are planned to explore dark energy. The Durham simulation has demonstrated the feasibility of the SPACE satellite mission proposed to the European Space Agency's (ESA) Cosmic Vision programme.
The project has been put forward by an international consortium of researchers including the Durham team.
SPACE, which is led by Bologna University, in Italy, is through to the next round of assessment by the ESA and if successful is planned to launch in 2017.
Co-principal investigator Professor Andrea Cimatti, of Bologna University, said: "Thanks to the ICC simulations it is possible to predict what SPACE would observe and to plan how to develop the mission parameters in order to obtain a three-dimensional map of the Universe and to compare it with the predictions of the simulations.
"Thanks to this comparison it will be possible to unveil the nature of dark energy and to understand how the structures in the Universe built up and evolved with cosmic time."
Findings are published January 11 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The Durham research was funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council and the European Commission.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080110194502.htm
-------------------- From dust you are made and to dust you shall return.
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers



Registered: 03/06/03
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Re: Super-computer Could Throw Light On 'Mysterious' Dark Energy [Re: elbisivni]
#7864442 - 01/11/08 11:02 AM (16 years, 21 days ago) |
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Cool article.
I am absolutely fascinated by astronomy and astrophysics.
I think we are on the cusp of some very exciting discoveries in these fields!
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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Asante
Mage


Registered: 02/06/02
Posts: 86,795
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Re: Super-computer Could Throw Light On 'Mysterious' Dark Energy [Re: elbisivni]
#7865028 - 01/11/08 01:23 PM (16 years, 21 days ago) |
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Is there even such a thing as Dark Energy?
Could it not be our known universe being just a drop in an endless sea of galaxies, and that we're being pulled apart by the gravity of the universe surrounding the tiny speck we happen to know?
Imagine our universe being surrounded by a void containing mind-boggling black holes more massive than our universe, that accumulate mass until they detonate into Big Bangs of their own, and all sorts of big bang universes around us too.
Certainly that would apply some gravitational pull to our matter.
It would mean that in a zero interference area of space a flying object consisting of normal matter would very gradually accellerate.
-------------------- Omnicyclion.org higher knowledge starts here
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers



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Re: Super-computer Could Throw Light On 'Mysterious' Dark Energy [Re: Asante]
#7865038 - 01/11/08 01:26 PM (16 years, 21 days ago) |
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And our entire universe could be enclosed in a drop of saliva on my cats jowl.
Prove it, and I'll believe it.
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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Asante
Mage


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Posts: 86,795
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Re: Super-computer Could Throw Light On 'Mysterious' Dark Energy [Re: Madtowntripper]
#7865051 - 01/11/08 01:29 PM (16 years, 21 days ago) |
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What I'm saying is: maybe Dark Energy is so mysterious and enigmatic because it does not exist. we could be attributing observed phenomena to novel concepts that might be incorrect.
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers



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Re: Super-computer Could Throw Light On 'Mysterious' Dark Energy [Re: Asante]
#7865061 - 01/11/08 01:32 PM (16 years, 21 days ago) |
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Entirely possible.
Maybe the LHC will give us some answers!
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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Asante
Mage


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Posts: 86,795
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Re: Super-computer Could Throw Light On 'Mysterious' Dark Energy [Re: Madtowntripper]
#7865073 - 01/11/08 01:35 PM (16 years, 21 days ago) |
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IT WILL BE THE END OF US I TELL YOU!!!!!!111!!1!
I hope you know I was exaggerating for discussion's sake back then.
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers



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Re: Super-computer Could Throw Light On 'Mysterious' Dark Energy [Re: Asante]
#7877522 - 01/14/08 09:33 AM (16 years, 18 days ago) |
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Just for the reference of those interested, I just watched a really good Scientific American show last night about the search for dark energy, the reasons scientists are sure it exists, and how they are looking for it.
The show was "Scientific American Frontiers: The Dark Side of the Universe", and it comes highly reccomended from me.
I'm a geologist, and I often find incorrect statements about geology in popular science shows about my science, so I assume there are some errors in this as well. But if you don't want to slog through peer-reviewed astrophysics journals, this seems like a good place to start.
The show is available on iTunes, for those interested.
Or a summary could be forthcoming, if it was desired.
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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elbisivni

Registered: 10/01/06
Posts: 2,839
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Re: Super-computer Could Throw Light On 'Mysterious' Dark Energy [Re: Madtowntripper]
#7879329 - 01/14/08 05:15 PM (16 years, 18 days ago) |
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Quote:
Or a summary could be forthcoming, if it was desired.
Have at it
-------------------- From dust you are made and to dust you shall return.
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