posted on Oct, 1 2009 @ 05:42 PM
reply to post by Maddogkull
It's really hard to separate the writer's cynicism from his attempt to articulate the idea of dark energy, but I can relate what I understand of the
situation.
The universe is composed of billions of galaxies (among other celestial objects). We have observed the galaxies moving away from each other since the
early 1920's. This expansion is due to the very expansion of space-time itself in a theory somewhat unfortunately called the big bang.
Modern calculations of the speeds at which the galaxies are moving apart have thrown a monkey wrench into the situation. The galaxies's movement
seems to be accelerating rather than being constant, which is what would be predicted from what we calculate to be from the total gravitational force
that the galaxies (along with undetected dark matter) exert on each other.
Thus the "deus ex machina" that the writer refers to is dark energy, an unknown force of nature that maybe accelerating the movement of the
galaxies.
If this force is real, and continues to accelerate at its current pace, eventually the galaxies will move further and further apart, to the point
where they'll seem to disappear from our view.
Please note, we are talking about billions of years, not tomorrow or Dec. 23, 2012.
To be honest we just don't have enough data to fully refine what we are seeing, and perhaps dark energy as an explanation won't be necessary.