EPISODE · Oct 11, 2019 · 49 MIN
46: Dark Energy And The End Of The Universe
from syzygy · host Chris Stewart
LIVE SHOW! We’re coming to the Podcast Social Club, Nov 22-23, in Thirsk, UK. Come join the audience for this fab podcast event!Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.On the web: syzygy.fm | Twitter: @syzygypodThings we talked about in this episode:The Podcast Social Club — Nov 22-23Einstein’s biggest blunderHubble and the expansion of the universeMeasuring distance with standard candlesVeritasium video on The 2011 Nobel PrizeThe fate of the universe: crunch, rip or chill?Planck map of the Cosmic Background Radiation2DF Galaxy Redshift Survey
What this episode covers
A century ago, Einstein had a conundrum: his brand new General Theory of Relativity, explaining gravity as warped space-time, predicted a universe either expanding or contracting — yet the cosmos seemed, and was believed by all to be, static. To fix his equations, he added a simple fudge factor, the Cosmological Constant, to balance gravity and keep the universe in place. Hubble then showed that, *actually*, the Universe is expanding after all ... and everyone agreed that Einstein's constant wasn't necessary. Albert himself called it his "biggest blunder". Except, a hundred years later, astronomers found that the universe isn't just expanding ... it's speeding up! The simplest way to account for this in theory is to drag Einstein's blunder out of the bin, dust it off, and give it a new name: Dark Energy. Not a big deal — it only accounts for, what, 70% of the known universe ...
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46: Dark Energy And The End Of The Universe
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