Dark matter and dark energy: Do they really exist?
For close on a century, researchers have hypothesised that the universe contains more matter than can be directly observed, known as "dark matter." They have also posited the existence of a "dark energy" that is more powerful than gravitational attraction. These two hypotheses, it has been argued, account for the movement of stars in galaxies and for the accelerating expansion of the universe respectively. But -- according to a researcher at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland -- these concepts may be no longer valid: the phenomena they are supposed to describe can be demonstrated without them. This research, which is published in The Astrophysical Journal , exploits a new theoretical model based on the scale invariance of the empty space, potentially solving two of astronomy's greatest mysteries.
In 1933, the Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky made a discovery that left the world speechless: there was, claimed Zwicky, substantially more matter in ...