A BIG crunch, a big rip or a long, slow drift into darkness. One of these dramatic fates awaits our universe. To know which one, we need to unravel the nature of dark energy, the mysterious force that is causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate. "Cosmic acceleration is the biggest mystery in all of science," says cosmologist Michael Turner of the University of Chicago.
This month, at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Washington DC, the mystery deepened when Brad Schaefer of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge reported that dark energy appears to be changing - rapidly. Though his experimental method left most cosmologists unconvinced, the result stressed how little we know about dark energy and the need for different approaches.
Within months, a dark energy task force will recommend projects to study this cosmic enigma. But there is uncertainty over what the approach ...
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