Accelerated expansion of the universe

[Leisher]

Probably rubbish.

[TPRJones]

Probably is a strong word at this point. There's more work to be done first.

[Leisher]

Fair point.

[Malcolm]

Any theory that cites dark matter or dark energy can be read thusly:

[GORDON]

The universe may not be expanding as fast? Well this fucks up my entire week.

[TPRJones]

To be honest I've never much liked dark matter/energy. It just feels too much like a fudge-factor in a buggy theory. Evidence has been decent so far, though, but I'll not be too surprised if it turns out to have been wrong.

[Malcolm]

Evidence has not been that decent. It's been "the best" we've got so far, but that's not a high standard when you consider all the shit we don't know about our own planet, let alone things beyond it.

This number indicates a massive galaxy, roughly the same weight as the Milky Way. If the distribution of the galaxy’s mass continues beyond its visible boundaries in the same way that it does in our own, Dragonfly 44 is about a trillion times more massive than the Sun. Furthermore, the galaxy possesses about 90 globular star clusters, 10 times more than a typical low-mass galaxy as dim as this one. This again argues that Dragonfly 44 is massive.

Galaxies this massive are usually the most efficient at converting their gas into stars. Yet Dragonfly 44 is a mere blip in terms of brilliance, what the researchers call a ‘failed galaxy’.

That's a description of a galaxy made up of nearly pure dark matter. The amount of dark energy and matter in the standard model dominates all other cosmological components, accounting for upwards of 90% of the universe. That's 90% "we got nothing." If you took a test where you could at best take barely educated guesses at nine-tenths of the questions, chances are you'd register just above "dumb-ass" on the result scale.

[TPRJones]

Putting these new results in context:

[Vince]

To be honest I've never much liked dark matter/energy. It just feels too much like a fudge-factor in a buggy theory. Evidence has been decent so far, though, but I'll not be too surprised if it turns out to have been wrong.

I was okay with dark matter to explain the lack bodies impacting gravitational effects. When they had to create an entire "dark universe" (matter, energy, protons, etc) to get it to work, then I think something has gone sideways.