OT: The Universe's "Dark Energy" Explained?
SCIENCE NEWS! And... potentially revolutionary! If this is proven, yesterday will go down as one of the turning-point days in our understanding of the Universe. And, perhaps more importantly, undoubtedly result in a new character in MCU Phase 9.
"Dark energy," which makes up about 70% of the entire Universe's energy, has been a total mystery. It's what is pushing the Universe apart -- why the Universe is expanding faster and faster. We discovered its existence right around our last football natty, but have had no idea what it is. (For the record, about 5% of the Universe is matter -- you, me, footballs, Jim MF Harbaugh [OK maybe not Jim] -- and about 25% is dark matter, which causes galaxies to bind together but does not interact with electromagnetic force so its "invisible" to us.)
A team of physicists came out yesterday with a theory about Dark Energy. Amazingly, it (1) explains what Dark Energy is, (2) requires NO new laws of physics or particles or forces, (3) works within Einstein's laws of general relativity, and (4) is based on observational evidence (a gold standard -- it's not just theory, it's theory backed up by data).
I attach some articles below that attempt to explain it better. Here is the headline: As the Universe expanded, supermassive black holes (in the centers of the original galaxies) expanded too. This expansion increased their energy -- by a LOT. This increase of energy inside black holes IS the "dark energy." These scientists measured it because an increase in energy means an increase in mass (E=mc2), and they have observational proof that black holes have had otherwise-unexplained increases in mass over time -- 700% to 2000% increases.
But wait, there's more! This theory ALSO explains away one of the great mysteries of black holes -- that they must have a "singularity" in their very middle. Math hates singularities because it requires division by zero. This theory implies that black holes don't have singularities but have "vacuum energy." (Don't ask me to explain, I don't get that either, but they said it, sooo...)
OFC, other scientists be like meh or pffft, this is flavor of the day, it'll pass, there are too many "but... but..." responses to this theory. One obvious one is: Hey, if supermassive black holes have so much gravity that they suck everything towards them, how are they also pushing away everything in the Universe? While counterintuitive, I have to say, it strikes me as vaguely consistent with our growing understanding that space and time are not independent of particles and energy, but are inherently all part of the same underlying structure, we just don't yet understand it. Stupid humans.
Further reading to explain:
https://www.space.com/black-holes-create-dark-energy-first-evidence
https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a42941836/scientists-find-source-of-dark-energy/
February 17th, 2023 at 1:22 PM ^
Don't forget that it's turtles all the way down!
February 17th, 2023 at 9:06 AM ^
Well duh!
February 17th, 2023 at 9:07 AM ^
I've always loved this stuff so thanks. Maybe a new episode of 'How the Universe Works' subject.
February 17th, 2023 at 9:08 AM ^
I've seen Event Horizon and Armageddon so I'm somewhat of an expert myself.
February 17th, 2023 at 9:34 AM ^
Those movies are so wildly different and I'm impressed you were able to put them together in your studies.
February 17th, 2023 at 9:37 AM ^
But did you stay at a Holiday Inn Express?
February 17th, 2023 at 2:15 PM ^
Add Interstellar to your watch list.
February 17th, 2023 at 9:12 AM ^
I always thought it was what the moderator did? Or whoever Negs all responses. :)
February 17th, 2023 at 9:23 AM ^
It'll be interesting to see what kind of tests they come up with to attempt to verify this. Proving things on this scale is difficult.
For those interested in all this -- grand cosmology down to minute quantum stuff -- there's a series of videos on YouTube called "History of the Universe" that's very well done. There's a bunch of videos at this point, so digesting them all would take some time. But I've found them to be very interesting.
I understand only a fraction of this stuff. I live next door to a guy who holds a PhD in physics and did work on particle physics. He tells me there's just a whole bunch that's not really understood. Theorized, but by no means fully understood.
February 17th, 2023 at 9:37 AM ^
Allow me to proffer an amelioration to your inaugural sentence:
”…what kind of tests they come up with to attempt to falsify this.”
The Michigan difference means we must represent epistemological integrity on message board posts about scientific discovery. Not saying. Just saying.
February 17th, 2023 at 9:54 AM ^
Exactly what I was thinking; a lot of speculation.
February 17th, 2023 at 2:52 PM ^
BTW, the same folks who put together the History of the Universe videos also produced a long series of videos about the development of life on Earth; they're very well done IMHO.
February 18th, 2023 at 9:23 PM ^
Check out https://youtube.com/@pbsspacetime
as well, great and wide ranging discussions on spacetime and particle physics.
February 17th, 2023 at 9:31 AM ^
My understanding of dividing by zero is that you can do anything you want in math, but the consequences of dividing by zero are that numbers become meaningless (they all become equal). Hence, it is frowned upon.
When I took astrophysics in 2002, the professor did a derivation showing how in a black hole that time and position swap. He said this could be interpreted as you would be able to control your time, but not your position. I wonder if this new theory either debunks that derivation entirely or provides insight into its meaning.
February 17th, 2023 at 9:56 AM ^
My understanding of dividing by zero is that you can do anything you want in math, but the consequences of dividing by zero are that numbers become meaningless (they all become equal). Hence, it is frowned upon.
Be right back, I'm going to pass this information on to some politicians who usually aren't big on math but who will LOVE this.
February 17th, 2023 at 9:58 AM ^
I realize that dividing by zero presents some significant conceptual problems but I’m absolutely certain that zeros can multiply. My proof case is: Ohio.
February 17th, 2023 at 3:19 PM ^
You got all of that one!
February 17th, 2023 at 10:04 PM ^
cinderella story, former greenskeeper, now...masters champion
February 17th, 2023 at 10:20 AM ^
I'm no trained physicist, but as a guy who reads too much of this stuff, and not the actual study yet, my guess is no. The effect where time and space reverse (so space only moves in one direction--toward the "singularity" and time can go both ways) takes effect when you cross the event horizon. The math for that part of it, I would guess, should stay the same.
February 22nd, 2023 at 10:05 AM ^
Me either.
February 17th, 2023 at 1:07 PM ^
My understanding of dividing by zero is that you can do anything you want in math, but the consequences of dividing by zero are that numbers become meaningless (they all become equal). Hence, it is frowned upon.
That's not how it was ever described in my math classes, instead that you just can't divide by zero--but you can divide by increasingly small numbers and follow that pattern. [Though it's been a long time since my many math classes in college, so someone smarter feel free to correct me.]
For the simple case, 1/x for example: as x approaches 0, 1/x approaches infinity. So non-mathematically, you could sort of say that 1/0 is infinity. But infinity isn't a number, and one infinity doesn't equal another. In a simplified version of this, 1/x and 2/x both approach infinity as x approaches 0, but they are never equal to one another no matter what value of x you use.
Also, there are other patterns in other situations. So, -1/x approaches negative infinity as x approaches 0, and x/x remains at 1 as x approaches 0. And in general, limits can be finicky, there are math functions that don't reach a limit: cos(1/x) will constantly change, rather than reach a particular number as x approaches 0. Other times you'll get something that approaches infinity if you approach 0 from one side (say from positive numbers going down), and approaches negative infinity if you approach 0 from the other side (from negative numbers going up).
February 17th, 2023 at 9:33 AM ^
The moment I hear or read, "but wait, there's more", my brain shifts over to Ron Popeil's Vege-o-matic, which, of course, takes me to Dan Akroyd's Bass-o-Matic. From there, the thoughts wander over to Jane The Ignorant Slut, Emily Litella's violins on television, Garrett Morris closed captioning for the hearing impaired, Samurai Tailor, and ...
Sorry, you were saying something about black holes and dividing by zero? Fascinating stuff, thank you!
Coffee?
February 17th, 2023 at 11:53 AM ^
"Wow, that's terrific bass!"
February 17th, 2023 at 6:05 PM ^
Speaking of blended bass, if you have the means, I highly recommend the JetBlend. It is so choice and has definitely changed my life.
February 17th, 2023 at 9:46 AM ^
I’m just sitting here trying to figure out if this information can be used to support or refute the story presented as true in the movie Cocaine Bear.
February 17th, 2023 at 9:49 AM ^
See, the thing about theories is.....IS THAT BEAR ON COCAINE!?
February 17th, 2023 at 10:05 AM ^
This film sounds intriguing. May not be as good as Velocipastor but I’ll have to watch.
After losing his parents, a priest travels to China, where he inherits a mysterious ability that allows him to turn into a dinosaur. At first horrified by this new power, a hooker convinces him to use it to fight crime. And ninjas.
February 17th, 2023 at 10:16 AM ^
Velocipastor was a fun watch. It's the kind of movie that knows exactly what it is and leans into it. Take some shrooms or smoke a joint and gather your loved ones for a night of laughs, love, and carnage.
On a related note, if you want to watch a terrible movie that can't figure out what it wants to be with monsters and clergy, check out the 2015 classic Shark Exorcist.
February 17th, 2023 at 10:38 AM ^
Nothing is as good as Monsturd, a movie about a giant piece of shit that kills people.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364527/
“Help me, Bobby. The shitman has got me!”
February 17th, 2023 at 1:37 PM ^
Speaking of movies, I just recently watched Graffiti Bridge, the 1991 sequel to Purple Rain. I also just recently learned that the movie exists. Per Wikipedia,
In 1991, Prince was quoted as saying "(It was) one of the purest, most spiritual, uplifting things I've ever done. It was non-violent, positive and had no blatant sex scenes. Maybe it will take people 30 years to get it. They trashed The Wizard of Oz at first, too."
Having just watched it 32 years after it was released, I’m going to suggest that it will take another 30 years for people to get it.
February 17th, 2023 at 10:08 AM ^
I haven't seen Cocaine Bear, but I was under the impression that it was just a dramatization of the "Pablo Escobear" story.
February 17th, 2023 at 9:47 AM ^
I just hope that somewhere out there, there is a Truman Burbank who rams their spacecraft into the wall of the universe.
February 17th, 2023 at 9:48 AM ^
I come to Mgoblog for topics such as this and another reason to avoid 11Warriors and RCMB forums!
February 17th, 2023 at 10:06 AM ^
logged in to comment that this theory is fact. Did some calculations this morning and it checks out
February 17th, 2023 at 10:32 AM ^
It's an old theory that finally is getting traction. Hard to overcome scientific dogma.
February 17th, 2023 at 10:35 AM ^
The Popular Mechanics article was the best of the linked articles. It does a great job of summarizing complex concepts for interested laypersons like me.
February 17th, 2023 at 10:45 AM ^
Vacuum energy is key to the Big Bang theory (aka “fluctuations in a vacuum” as explained to me in my QM class in 1981). Much as changed since I graduated.
Vacuums contain energy, equal to Einstein’s cosmological constant (or much much higher according to some QM theories). It makes sense that a black hole’s vacuum energy could be very great, considering the shift in space time in near a black hole. They create an incredible “vacuum”.
It is why black holes suck. /joke
for a better explanation of vacuum energy, please see https://revolutionized.com/what-is-vacuum-energy-really/
QM= Quantum Mechanics
February 17th, 2023 at 11:31 AM ^
cosmological constant problem is fascinating.
why the heck is the zero-point energy of a vacuum both tiny (Einstein's cosmological constant experimentally shown via Lamb shift and spontaneous emission) and massive (pretty much all of quantum electrodynamics and quantum field theory)?
February 17th, 2023 at 12:06 PM ^
Yea, I have problems with advanced QM mathematics, too many assumptions.
In our QM class, Dr Victor Wong (later the science dean at UMD) was calculating why all the trees of a forest appear to be the same height ~10^^2 M (in Physics, anything within 1 OOM (order of magnitude) is considered correct)).
You see, Dr Wong rode the bus and had lots of time to theorize ridiculous stuff.
He started with a premise of water vapor density, and then he went on for 6 pages of calculus, and at one point applied Gauss’ equation for some reason I still don’t understand. He resulted in all the oaks, maples, poplars, etc reaching 10^^2 M.
A classmate asked one of the Biologist about the math, and he scoffed. Too many other variables such as rain, nutrients, sunlight, etc affect the outcome he said.
My long winded point? I am never surprised when QM comes up with an answer that is 120 OOM different than Relativity. Not saying it is wrong, just not surprised.
February 17th, 2023 at 11:45 AM ^
Or as you approach the singularity, time is slowed, and you never reach 0 ? At the heart of every black hole the time of existence is as close to the time of the Big Bang as calculable (0 is the asymptote).
February 17th, 2023 at 11:55 AM ^
NERD!
February 17th, 2023 at 12:02 PM ^
Thanks for posting this. Very interesting. This also seems like it could help explain some current mysteries around the early universe as well. I think there is currently some uncertainty around why when we look at the early universe there are already so many super massive black holes at the centers of Galaxies. To form a super massive black hole, you need a bunch of massive stars to form and then collapse into black holes. These black holes then need to migrate to the center of the galaxy and merge with other black holes that have done the same. Based on that we would not expect to see black holes of the number and size we do when the universe was only a billion years old. This theory seems to provide another mechanism for that to happen – the mass of the black holes increased due to the expansion of the universe itself, not just due to merging with other black holes. Very cool.
February 17th, 2023 at 12:10 PM ^
Link to the actual article for those who are interested:
February 17th, 2023 at 12:17 PM ^
I've read the PopMech and the Guardian articles, and unless I missed it, nothing in those articles explains exactly what dark energy is—they just explain this new theory for the source of dark energy.
My theory is that if the UFOs encountered by US military pilots and personnel are real and really do exhibit the behaviors that have been described, including instantaneous acceleration and the ability to carry out instantaneous changes in direction without any apparent affect of momentum or inertia, the power source is somehow connected to vacuum or zero point energy.
February 17th, 2023 at 12:20 PM ^
So the ability to tap into this source would finally give us what we need for Speed In Space