It is not easy to be a scientist, even a renowned one, because all your contemporaries and those who follow will try to prove or disprove your theories. Talk to Albert Einstein; one of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century contributed theses which led to leaps forward in quantum physics and also in nuclear fission. However, one of its hypotheses could be undermined and even dismantled in the coming years.
Indeed, the German-born scientist predicted that the continued expansion of the universe would slow down over time because of the massive presence of matter. However, a research team from the University of Geneva would have measured the distortion of time and space outside the solar system and a discrepancy would occur between Einstein’s predictions and reality. Current measurements would, on the contrary, show an acceleration in the expansion of the universe. For now, the researchers behind the discovery don’t want to disprove the hypothesis yet until they have more data.
However, they considered two possibilities explaining this acceleration. Either it would be an error in Einstein’s calculations and it would lead to a new theory on gravity and universal expansion; either this would be the result of dark energy, a supposed energy form still unknown to scientists.
Duration: 5min33
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Image : Gerd Altmann of Pixabay
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