Strategy to Shed Gamma Light on the Secrets of Dark Energy
Dennis O'Brien
Baltimore Sun
AZ Central.com, AZ
_______________
Washington (US):
A group of Astronomers gathered in Washington last week waded into an issue that's really big, even by cosmological standards.
They're trying to measure dark energy -- the unseen but very real force that's causing the universe to expand. "I believe this is the biggest mystery in all of science," said Michael Turner, an astronomer at the University of Chicago who joined hundreds of colleagues at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
Until now, most astronomers have tried to measure dark energy by looking at the light from supernovae -- created by the explosions of stars. But Bradley E. Schafer, an astronomer at Louisiana State University, wants to change that.
And he's willing to challenge Albert Einstein and most of the world's cosmologists to do it. Schaefer says his analysis of 52 gamma ray bursts -- the most powerful explosions in space -- shows that they are a good (and maybe better) yardstick for measuring how quickly the universe is expanding. He also says that when Einstein was calculating the rate of expansion of the universe, he got it wrong.
But many scientists argue that too little is known about gamma ray bursts to consider using them as a dark-energy yardstick.
Jan 20, 2006
Dennis O'Brien
Baltimore Sun
AZ Central.com, AZ
_______________
Washington (US):
A group of Astronomers gathered in Washington last week waded into an issue that's really big, even by cosmological standards.
They're trying to measure dark energy -- the unseen but very real force that's causing the universe to expand. "I believe this is the biggest mystery in all of science," said Michael Turner, an astronomer at the University of Chicago who joined hundreds of colleagues at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
Until now, most astronomers have tried to measure dark energy by looking at the light from supernovae -- created by the explosions of stars. But Bradley E. Schafer, an astronomer at Louisiana State University, wants to change that.
And he's willing to challenge Albert Einstein and most of the world's cosmologists to do it. Schaefer says his analysis of 52 gamma ray bursts -- the most powerful explosions in space -- shows that they are a good (and maybe better) yardstick for measuring how quickly the universe is expanding. He also says that when Einstein was calculating the rate of expansion of the universe, he got it wrong.
But many scientists argue that too little is known about gamma ray bursts to consider using them as a dark-energy yardstick.
Jan 20, 2006
