Dark energy, long thought to drive the accelerating of the expansion of the universe, may not exist, according to a groundbreaking study.
The research, based on enhanced light-curve analysis of "type Ia supernovae," suggests the universe expands in a "lumpy" and uneven manner rather than uniformly.
Published Thursday in the journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the study was led by professor David Wiltshire of the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.
"Our findings show that we do not need dark energy to explain why the Universe appears to expand at an accelerating rate," said Wiltshire. "Dark energy is a misidentification of variations in the kinetic energy of expansion, which is not uniform in a Universe as lumpy as the one we live in."
The new framework, known as the "timescape" hypothesis, posits that differences in gravitational effects across cosmic structures influence the perception of time and space.
A clock in the Milky Way, for instance, would run 35% slower than one in a vast cosmic void, creating an illusion of accelerated expansion.
The findings challenge the prevailing Lambda Cold Dark Matter (ΛCDM) model, which relies on dark energy to account for the universe's observed behavior.
The study also offered a potential resolution to the long-standing "Hubble tension," a discrepancy between observed and predicted expansion rates of the universe.
"With new data, the Universe’s biggest mystery could be settled by the decade’s end," Wiltshire added.
Upcoming observations from instruments like the European Space Agency's Euclid satellite and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) are expected to provide critical tests for the alternative model.
If validated, the research could redefine our understanding of the cosmos, eliminating the need for dark energy and offering new insights into the universe’s complex expansion.
