Ammon News - New data involving millions of galaxies and luminous galactic cores is providing fresh evidence that the enigmatic and invisible cosmic force called dark energy - responsible for the universe's accelerated expansion - has weakened over time rather than remaining constant, as long hypothesized.

The findings announced on Wednesday are part of a years-long study of the history of the cosmos, focusing upon dark energy. The researchers analyzed three years of observations by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, or DESI, at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.

"The DESI results tantalizingly hint at an evolving dark energy," said Arjun Dey, an astrophysicist at the U.S. National Science Foundation's NOIRLab and the NOIRLab project scientist for DESI.

The new analysis used data from DESI's first three years of observations of almost 15 million galaxies and quasars, which are extremely bright galactic cores where a supermassive black hole hungrily consumes surrounding material.

This analysis, combined with other astrophysical data, offers mounting evidence that the impact of dark energy may be weakening over time and that the standard model of how the universe works may need to be revised, the researchers said. Reuters