New Model Describes an 'Eternal' Universe

A team of experts has recently developed a new cosmological model that eliminates the need for dark energy to exist, by explaining the way the Universe behaves through other means.

The way the scientists made this model work was by modifying the Einstein field equation. This resulted in an Universe that expands in an accelerated manner naturally.

The new model also deals away with another sticky issue for astronomy and astrophysics, and namely singularities. The problem with this is that the Big Bang is also taken out of the equation.

Though not a singularity in itself, researchers believe that the Big Bang stemmed from such a cosmic event. The lack of singularities means that that beginning of the Universe has no origin.

As an explanation for why the Cosmos exists, the model proposes that we all live in a place that is eternal, and that oscillates geometrically, Universe Today reports.

Oddly enough, that is not impossible, nor improbable. The main flaw in the new model is its inability to explain the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB).

Prevailing theories state that it represents a residual light of sorts, left behind by the Big Bang itself. Unlike dark energy and dark matter, its existence has not only been inferred, but also quantified.

Telescopes such as Planck, which was built and is operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), measure the CMB daily, in a bid to gather more data on the event that produced it.

Another point in which the new theory moves away from accepted wisdom is the speed of light in a vacuum. The model requires this speed to vary.

There are numerous alternative models to how the Universe, and most of them require that this speed be inconstant throughout. But this is about the only absolute thing in Einstein's relative Universe.

The idea stems from the fact that time may be nothing more than a product of the fact that the Cosmos is expanding. As such, it may be nothing more than a function of distance.

In this sense, time and distance become mutually derivable, with the conversion factor between the two being the speed of light, c.

But astrophysicists say that, if a theory renounced some of the main principles behind Einstein's theory on general relativity, then it needs to renounce all concepts pertaining to it.

This means leaving many things unexplained. In any case, the development of such models constitutes interesting thought experiments, that may eventually lead to a broader understanding of how the Universe came to be.