From: richZIG.e.clayZIGton@gmail.com   
      
   On 27-Mar-25 01:53, jillery wrote:   
   > On Wed, 26 Mar 2025 09:31:10 -0400, Kestrel Clayton   
   >  wrote:   
   >   
   >> Here's a source I found useful, as a first-pass primer:   
   >>   
   >> https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2025/03/19/new-desi-results-streng   
   hen-hints-that-dark-energy-may-evolve/   
   >>   
   >> It's still pop science, but at least it's pop science written by actual   
   >> scientists. The page is careful to state "the preference for an evolving   
   >> dark energy has not risen to '5 sigma,' the gold standard in physics   
   >> that represents the threshold for a discovery." Also it does not claim   
   >> that cosmic expansion is slowing; only that the *rate of increase* in   
   >> expansion due to dark energy may have slowed in the past (and is   
   >> presumably still slowing). In other words, the car isn't slowing down,   
   >> but dark energy is very slowly easing up on the throttle.   
   >   
   >   
   > IIUC you distinguish between "rate of increase" aka acceleration and   
   > plain vanilla increase.  If dark energy is constant, then rate of   
   > increase would be proportional to the distance between objects aka   
   > Hubble's Law.  If distant objects accelerate more slowly than   
   > expected, then some other factor besides dark energy or gravity is   
   > involved (gravity weakens over distance).   
   >   
   > I have speculated in the past that dark energy might weaken over time   
   > due to some quantum effect, which suggests that spacetime isn't doomed   
   > to expand forever, and instead, some googolplexian years from now,   
   > collapse cyclically back onto itself.   
      
   Could well be. We're far off the map from what I know — when I was a   
   physics student, the phrase "dark energy" hadn't even been coined yet.   
      
   --   
   [The address listed is a spam trap. To reply, take off every zig.]   
   Kestrel Clayton   
   "Every normal woman must be tempted, at times, to stoke the fire,   
   host the black mass, and begin eating hearts." — Rose Bailey   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)