The expansion of the universe is a mystery that has puzzled scientists for twenty-five years, and solving it involves testing Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. According to Einstein’s theory, the universe is deformed like a flexible sheet by matter, causing gravitational wells that bend light.
In 1919, observing this phenomenon during a solar eclipse confirmed Einstein’s theory, which predicted a light deflection twice as large as Newton’s prediction. However, new research using data from the Dark Energy Survey has found a slight discrepancy between Einstein’s predictions and the actual measurements.
The French-Swiss team analyzed 100 million galaxies at four different points in time, revealing how gravitational wells have evolved over 6-7 billion years ago. They discovered that the depth of these wells aligns with Einstein’s predictions until 3.5-5 billion years ago but becomes shallower later.
This discrepancy is significant enough to raise questions about the validity of Einstein’s theory at large scales. However, the team emphasizes that this incompatibility is not large enough to invalidate the theory and requires further investigation. The team plans to analyze new data from the Euclid space telescope to confirm or refute these findings.
The study provides new insights into the components, history, and expansion of the universe, shedding light on a fundamental aspect of our understanding of the cosmos.
Source: https://phys.org/news/2024-11-theory-team-einstein-distortion-space.html