From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4@msn.com)
Date: Tue Nov 12 2002 - 10:45:00 PST
This article is also available on the web at:
http://www.spacetoday.net/getsummary.php?id=1301
Astronomers find new evidence for dark energy
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Posted: Tue, Nov 12 7:58 AM ET (1258 GMT)
Astronomers have used radio telescope observations to
conclude that two-thirds of the universe is made of a
bizarre "dark energy" that may explain why the expansion of
the universe is accelerating. In a paper published in
Physical Review Letters, a group of astronomers led by Ian
Browne of the Jodrell Bank Observatory in the UK conducted a
survey at radio wavelengths, looking for distant quasars
that had been gravitationally lensed by a galaxy between the
quasar and the Earth. Their results -- that one in 700
quasars in gravitationally lensed -- was combined with
previous surveys of the numbers and types of galaxies. To
explain the number of splittings observed, twice as many as
expected if there was no dark energy present, astronomers
concluded that there must be a significant amount of dark
energy, with long-range antigravity properties, in the
universe. The findings confirm previous studies which also
concluded that dark energy made up about two thirds of the
universe, with dark matter, a type of matter with normal
gravitational properties that eludes detection, making up
most of the rest.
Related Links:
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Jodrell Bank Observatory press release:
http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/news/darkenergy/
BBC article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2444123.stm
New Scientist article:
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993042
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