The universe is expanding at exactly the speed Prof. Albert Einstein has predicted — driven by “dark energy”, says a new study.
For its study, a team of cosmologists from University of Portsmouth and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics has examined the period between five and six billion years ago when the universe was half its present age and made measurements of extraordinary accuracy, within 1.7 per cent.
The findings support Einstein’s general theory of relativity which predicts how fast galaxies, separated by large distances, should be moving towards one another and at what rate the structure of the universe should be growing. The conclusions are consistent with the concordance model of a universe that bloomed from the big bang some 13.7 billion years ago, the Daily Mail reported. Team member Dr Rita Tojeiro said: “The results are the best measurement of an intergalactic distance ever made, which means cosmologists are closer than ever to understanding why the universe’s expansion is accelerating.
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Earth’s make-up differs from Sun
Washington: Contrary to decades-old assumption, a new research on the columns of hot rock from the earth’s core has concluded that our planet has a different chemical make-up from the sun.
For over a century, planetary scientists ass-umed the earth has same chemical make-up as the sun, based on the idea that everything in the solar system has the same composition. Now, an international team has found otherwise.
As it is easier to measure the chemical make-up of chondritic meteorites, planetary scientists have long used these to more precisely determine the sun’s composition — and therefore the composition of the earth.
— PTI