William Atkins
Wednesday, 17 December 2008 20:51
Science -
Space
Page 2 of 3
The Chandra space telescope observed hot gas in many different galaxy clusters scattered throughout the universe, some close together, and others far apart.
The Vikhlinin team found that the mass of the galaxy clusters, which are gravitationally-bound bodies (from ten to thousands of galaxies) that come together to form the densest parts of the universe, has increased over time.
Such action of coming together by these celestial objects agrees with a universe partially controlled by dark energy. NASA explains:
“It is more difficult for objects like galaxy clusters to grow when space is stretched….”
Another research member of the Vikhlinin team, William Forman (also with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory), stated,
"For years, scientists have wanted to start testing how gravity works on large scales and now, we finally have. This is a test that general relativity could have failed."
The information found with Chandra provides scientists with a much better picture of the properties of dark energy.
Vikhlinin adds,
"Putting all of this data together gives us the strongest evidence yet that dark energy is the cosmological constant, or in other words, that 'nothing weighs something.’"
He states,
"A lot more testing is needed, but so far Einstein's theory is looking as good as ever."
NASA comments on page three.
