Tuesday, November 5, 2024
12.6 C
New York

Has the Mystery Surrounding Einstein’s Constant Finally Been Solved?

Albert Einstein was a very clever physicist and one that the world of physics owes a lot too. But one of his theories has never really been able to be confirmed 100 percent, and that’s a conundrum involving what’s driving the accelerated expansion of the universe. For a long time, researchers have tried to get to the bottom of whether dark energy is needed for the expansion of the universe, as required by Einstein’s theory of general relativity. And now, a team at the University of Edinburgh in the UK may just have found the answers.


As part of Einstein’s theory, he included a Cosmological Constant to try and explain a static universe at first but then decided this mathematical element was flawed as he discovered the universe was in fact expanding. But then a couple of decades ago research was carried out that confirmed the expansion is accelerating, which means that Einstein’s Constant may have been right after all and that dark energy does have a role in the expansion.

If dark energy didn’t exist, Einstein’s theory of gravity simply wouldn’t work across the larger distances of our universe. However, scientists discovered that if we determined the speed of gravity in the cosmos by studying its gravitational waves, the puzzle could be solved. So with this in mind, the researchers carried out calculations to show that if gravitational waves were found to travel at the speed of light, this would support Einstein’s, Cosmological Constant.


But, if their speed is different to that of the speed of light then Einstein’s theory would need some revising. One way to prove or disprove this theory once and for all could be done using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), and experiments have been planned for later this year. Lucas Lombriser, from Edinburgh’s School if Physics and Astronomy said, “Recent direct gravitational wave detection has opened up a new observational window to our universe. Our results give an impression of how this will guide us in solving one of the most fundamental problems in physics.”


More News To Read

Hot this week

Brooklyn Defendants Charged in Rideshare Hacking Scheme: Jailbroken Phones Used to Exploit Uber

Brooklyn federal court has charged two defendants, Eliahou Paldiel...

Detecting Defects in Next-Generation Computer Chips: The Future of TMD-Based Semiconductors

As technology advances, the demand for smaller, more powerful...

Merging Galaxies in the Early Universe: The Birth of a Monster Galaxy

Astronomers have recently observed a fascinating event in the...

Topics

Brooklyn Defendants Charged in Rideshare Hacking Scheme: Jailbroken Phones Used to Exploit Uber

Brooklyn federal court has charged two defendants, Eliahou Paldiel...

Detecting Defects in Next-Generation Computer Chips: The Future of TMD-Based Semiconductors

As technology advances, the demand for smaller, more powerful...

Merging Galaxies in the Early Universe: The Birth of a Monster Galaxy

Astronomers have recently observed a fascinating event in the...

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope to Uncover Galactic Fossils and Dark Matter Mysteries

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope is set to transform our...

Black Myth: Wukong – A Game that Gamers Love Despite Media Backlash

In a gaming industry increasingly influenced by social agendas,...

Gravitational Waves Reveal a ‘Supercool’ Secret About the Big Bang

In 2023, physicists made a groundbreaking discovery that could...

Related Articles

Popular Categories

Send this to a friend