Astronomers have conducted a massive study mapping nearly 6 million galaxies across 11 billion years of the Universe’s history, providing strong evidence for Albert Einstein’s general relativity theory. The research, led by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory-led Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), reveals that gravity clumps galaxies together in accordance with predictions made by general relativity.
The study spans most of the 13.8-billion-year history of the Universe and is considered one of the largest tests of general relativity to date. The findings suggest that the theory holds up at both small and large scales, shedding light on its fundamental principles.
According to cosmologist Pauline Zarrouk, “General relativity has been well tested at the scale of solar systems, but we also needed to test that our assumption works at much larger scales.” The study provides a direct test of the theory’s predictions on cosmological scales.
Gravity is a fundamental force shaping the Universe, and its behavior is predictable and measurable. However, finding flaws in general relativity could reveal solutions to long-standing problems, such as reconciling quantum mechanics and classical physics.
The DESI Collaboration used data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) to map galaxy growth, evolution, and distribution across the cosmic web. The results show that the Universe has behaved according to general relativity’s predictions on an epic scale. The study also placed constraints on the upper limit for the mass of the neutrino.
The ongoing efforts will continue to shed light on the evolution of the Universe and the mysterious forces driving it. The researchers hope that DESI will help reveal the nature of dark matter and dark energy, two enigmatic components making up a quarter and 70 percent of the Universe respectively.
Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/einsteins-most-famous-theory-just-passed-its-biggest-challenge-ever