CANADA: New research involving “exploding stars” suggests the universe is not expanding as quickly as we thought it was.
Scientists found type Ia supernovae, or exploding stars, vary in brightness, as opposed to being rigidly uniform as was previously believed, the University of Arizona reported.
“We found that the differences are not random, but lead to separating Ia supernovae into two groups, where the group that is in the minority near us are in the majority at large distances — and thus when the universe was younger,” said UA astronomer Peter A. Milne. “There are different populations out there, and they have not been recognized. The big assumption has been that as you go from near to far, type Ia supernovae are the same. That doesn’t appear to be the case.”
The finding provides insight into the widely accepted view that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, and is being pulled apart by dark energy. The supernovae that are dimmer are believed to have moved farther away from Earth that they should have if the universe expanded at the same rate. This suggests the rate at which stars are moving away from each other is increasing, meaning something must be pushing them apart.
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