Nobel prize for dark energy, according to articles in Nature News blog 4 October 2011, The Canberra Times and ABC (Australia) Radio National 6 October 2011. Three astrophysicists have been awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae”. According to the Big Bang theory the universe began by expanding very rapidly, but as time goes on the gravity of all the massive objects in the universe should be slowing down the expansion. Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt, and Adam G. Riess studied the light from Type IA supernovae (exploding stars) which are all considered to have the same luminosity, so by comparing the apparent brightness of supernovae in progressively more distant galaxies it is possible to see if the rate of expansion is changing. They found they were dimmer than expected if the universe was slowing down.
The scientists believe they have found a force called Dark Energy which accounts for around 75% of the matter and energy in the universe, and overcomes the force of gravity, making the universe go on expanding with ever increasing speed. In an interview on ABC Radio National Brian Schmidt was asked: “What does it mean to live in an expanding universe?” He replied: “Living in an expanding universe means we can run it back into the past. It seems to have started 13.7 billion years ago, but now that it is running away from us, it seems to indicate that the universe is going to be without end. It is going to continue to expand faster and faster, and everything, all the galaxies – right now when we look out with our big telescopes we see billions upon billions of galaxies, but those galaxies are slowly fading from view and the rate they are fading from view is speeding up and so eventually, 100 billion years in the future, one can imagine looking out into what is effectively an empty universe”.
Editorial Comment: So what is actually out there? Dark Energy is called “dark” because it cannot be directly detected. Dark Energy is part of the “concordance” model of the universe which claims the universe consists of “73% dark energy (nature unknown), 23% cold dark matter (nature unknown) and 4% ordinary matter”. (See Science, vol 302, p2038 19 Dec 2003, and New Scientist 20 Dec 2003, p16.) The ordinary matter is the stuff we actually observe. Dark Matter and Dark Energy have been assumed into existence in order to explain findings that don’t fit the Big Bang theory. The only thing that has actually been observed by the Nobel physicists is increasingly dim supernovae.
Schmidt’s description of the universe beginning with a bang and ending up as dark empty space is exactly the opposite of the Biblical history of the universe. In the beginning God spoke and created the space, and put a cool, water covered earth in the heavens and later filled the space with all the objects we see in the sky. The same Creator also reveals that when He has finished with this physical universe it will end with a “great roar” and everything will be burned up. It didn’t start with a big bang but it sure will end with one! (See 2 Peter 3:3-13).
However, that will not be the real end of everything. God will create a new heaven and earth where those who put their trust in the Creator and Saviour Jesus Christ will live forever, and those who don’t will reap their reward in a Hell created for the Devil and his angels. (Ref. cosmology, astrophysics, eschatology)
Evidence News 12 October 2011