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Washington: An
Indian-origin cosmologist at Yale University has conducted a study
that indicates that the expansion of the universe will continue to
expand forever.
Priyamvada Natarajan used a massive galaxy cluster as a cosmic
magnifying lens to study the nature of dark energy for the first
time.
Astronomers employ a number of methods to study the geometry of the
universe, which tells us something about the nature of dark energy-a
mysterious force discovered in 1998 that speeds up the expansion of
the universe, but about which little else is known.
The team analysed images of 34 extremely distant galaxies situated
behind Abell 1689, one of the biggest and most massive known galaxy
clusters in the universe.
They detected the faint, distant background galaxies-whose light was
bent and projected by the cluster’s massive gravitational pull -
just as a lens does in a magnifier.
“The content, geometry and fate of the universe are linked, so if
you can constrain two of those things, you learn something about the
third,” Natarajan said.
The result confirms previous findings that the nature of dark energy
likely corresponds to a flat universe. In this scenario, the
expansion of the universe will continue to accelerate and the
universe will expand forever.
(ANI)
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