Dark Energy Experiment Shows No Traces of Mysterious 'Fifth Force'

[Frannie]

Dark Energy Experiment in a London Basement Shows No Traces of Mysterious 'Fifth Force'

An experiment to seek out dark energy, or the so-called "fifth force," has come up empty-handed, casting doubt over some theories related to the mysterious cosmic matter.

Dark energy is believed to be responsible for the expansion of the universe, counteracting gravity, and is considered to be the fifth force acting on matter, after gravity, the electromagnetic force, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. And while dark energy makes up around 68% of the universe, the force still has scientists scratching their heads.

In the new experiment, scientists at Imperial College London and the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom aimed to test the theory that dark energy is weaker when it is surrounded by other matter, such as planets, but stronger in a vacuum-like area, such as empty space. (That would mean dark energy operates opposite to how gravity works.) Using a tabletop setup in a London basement lab, the researchers placed a metal sphere the size of a marble and a single atom in a vacuum chamber to observe whether dark energy acts on single atoms.

If there had in fact been a fifth force acting between the atom and the metal sphere, then the atom would have deviated slightly as it got closer to the sphere, but the experiment failed to show that.

"This experiment, connecting atomic physics and cosmology, has allowed us to rule out a wide class of models that have been proposed to explain the nature of dark energy, and will enable us to constrain many more dark energy models," Edmund Copeland, a physics professor at the University of Nottingham's School of Physics and Astronomy and co-author of the study, said in a statement from Imperial College London.

How is it that when astronomers have no friking idea how the universe works, that they get to invent magic stuff?

 

[hadit]

Dark Energy Experiment in a London Basement Shows No Traces of Mysterious 'Fifth Force'

An experiment to seek out dark energy, or the so-called "fifth force," has come up empty-handed, casting doubt over some theories related to the mysterious cosmic matter.

Dark energy is believed to be responsible for the expansion of the universe, counteracting gravity, and is considered to be the fifth force acting on matter, after gravity, the electromagnetic force, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. And while dark energy makes up around 68% of the universe, the force still has scientists scratching their heads.

In the new experiment, scientists at Imperial College London and the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom aimed to test the theory that dark energy is weaker when it is surrounded by other matter, such as planets, but stronger in a vacuum-like area, such as empty space. (That would mean dark energy operates opposite to how gravity works.) Using a tabletop setup in a London basement lab, the researchers placed a metal sphere the size of a marble and a single atom in a vacuum chamber to observe whether dark energy acts on single atoms.

If there had in fact been a fifth force acting between the atom and the metal sphere, then the atom would have deviated slightly as it got closer to the sphere, but the experiment failed to show that.

"This experiment, connecting atomic physics and cosmology, has allowed us to rule out a wide class of models that have been proposed to explain the nature of dark energy, and will enable us to constrain many more dark energy models," Edmund Copeland, a physics professor at the University of Nottingham's School of Physics and Astronomy and co-author of the study, said in a statement from Imperial College London.

How is it that when astronomers have no friking idea how the universe works, that they get to invent magic stuff?

As has already been pointed out to the dimwitted, astronomers observe something they can't explain, attempt to explain it with the observations they've made, and publish their theory. Other astronomers look at the theory and test it using their observations. If they can disprove the theory, they do. If their work supports the theory, they publish that. Are you really so far removed from this that you don't understand that?

 

[Frannie]

Dark Energy Experiment in a London Basement Shows No Traces of Mysterious 'Fifth Force'

An experiment to seek out dark energy, or the so-called "fifth force," has come up empty-handed, casting doubt over some theories related to the mysterious cosmic matter.

Dark energy is believed to be responsible for the expansion of the universe, counteracting gravity, and is considered to be the fifth force acting on matter, after gravity, the electromagnetic force, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. And while dark energy makes up around 68% of the universe, the force still has scientists scratching their heads.

In the new experiment, scientists at Imperial College London and the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom aimed to test the theory that dark energy is weaker when it is surrounded by other matter, such as planets, but stronger in a vacuum-like area, such as empty space. (That would mean dark energy operates opposite to how gravity works.) Using a tabletop setup in a London basement lab, the researchers placed a metal sphere the size of a marble and a single atom in a vacuum chamber to observe whether dark energy acts on single atoms.

If there had in fact been a fifth force acting between the atom and the metal sphere, then the atom would have deviated slightly as it got closer to the sphere, but the experiment failed to show that.

"This experiment, connecting atomic physics and cosmology, has allowed us to rule out a wide class of models that have been proposed to explain the nature of dark energy, and will enable us to constrain many more dark energy models," Edmund Copeland, a physics professor at the University of Nottingham's School of Physics and Astronomy and co-author of the study, said in a statement from Imperial College London.

How is it that when astronomers have no friking idea how the universe works, that they get to invent magic stuff?

As has already been pointed out to the dimwitted, astronomers observe something they can't explain, attempt to explain it with the observations they've made, and publish their theory. Other astronomers look at the theory and test it using their observations. If they can disprove the theory, they do. If their work supports the theory, they publish that. Are you really so far removed from this that you don't understand that?

Actually astronomer 1 explains it

5 years later astronomer 2 says 1 was dumb (Einstein replaced by Hubble)
10 years later astronomer 3 says that can't be happening because there is 85 percent too little stuff

10 years later astronomer 4 says that there is a big magnet OUTSIDE THE UNIVERSE PULLING STUFF so the mass not found by astronomer 3 is not needed.

The fact is that no one knows, we won't know until we get there, as in Magellan, Pizarro and Columbus. That said if everything outside our galaxy is moving away at light or faster speed we may never be able to get to anything outside this galaxy. However if the drake equation is right there are over 8 billion earth like planets in this galaxy

 

[Augustine_]

People should stop trying to understand the universe or anything at all and just say a magical monkey man made everything.

So evaporation leads to clouds; much less thought and effort required to believe a great skylord made them instead.

 

[Frannie]

People should stop trying to understand the universe or anything at all and just say a magical monkey man made everything.

So evaporation leads to clouds; much less thought and effort required to believe a great skylord made them instead.

And you want people to believe that DNA the most complicated code known formed itself in Darwins magical pond.

Duh

 

[Augustine_]

People should stop trying to understand the universe or anything at all and just say a magical monkey man made everything.

So evaporation leads to clouds; much less thought and effort required to believe a great skylord made them instead.

And you want people to believe that DNA the most complicated code known formed itself in Darwins magical pond.

Duh

That requires too much thought and effort; IT WAS SKYLORD!

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Another mind numbingly stupid thread in the science section by someone who knows less than nothing about science...welcome to USMB...

 

[james bond]

You can't make this stuff up in ancient times. (At least, this website link is better that that live science one .

Job 9:8
He alone stretches out the heavens _ and treads on the waves of the sea.

Psalm 104:2
The LORD wraps himself in light as with a garment; _ he stretches out the heavens like a tent

Isaiah 40:22
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, _ and its people are like grasshoppers. _He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, _ and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

Isaiah 42:5
This is what God the LORD saysÑ _the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, _ who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, _ who gives breath to its people, _ and life to those who walk on it

Isaiah 44:24
ÒThis is what the LORD saysÑ _ your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, _ the Maker of all things, _ who stretches out the heavens, _ who spreads out the earth by myself,

Isaiah 45:12
It is I who made the earth _ and created mankind on it. _My own hands stretched out the heavens; _ I marshaled their starry hosts.

Isaiah 48:13
My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, _ and my right hand spread out the heavens; _when I summon them, _ they all stand up together.

Isaiah 51:13
that you forget the LORD your Maker, _ who stretches out the heavens _ and who lays the foundations of the earth, _that you live in constant terror every day _ because of the wrath of the oppressor, _ who is bent on destruction?

Jeremiah 10:12
But God made the earth by his power; _ he founded the world by his wisdom _ and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.

Jeremiah 51:15
ÒHe made the earth by his power; _ he founded the world by his wisdom _ and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.

Zechariah 12:1
The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares: 2 ÒI am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem.

 

[james bond]

Another mind numbingly stupid thread in the science section by someone who knows less than nothing about science...welcome to USMB...

Have to admit since Frannie started threads, the S&T board has gone way, way, way downhill. Now, we another schmoe Augustine_ to counter the blather. Dark energy and dark matter are important to secular/atheist science and has been widely propagated. We've discussed it before here -- Dark Energy - God?. In the religious forum where Frannie wasn't.

 

[Natural Citizen]

I'm a fan of the big bounce theory. The universe is naturally bi-directional.