DARK energy, the elusive force that seems to be pulling the Universe apart, may not exist after all. Two physicists say that rather than being caused by an extra force, the Universe’s speeding expansion could be explained by gravity leaking out into a huge extra dimension, weakening its effect over long distances.
Astronomers originally thought that since the early moments after the big bang, the rate of the Universe’s expansion must have been falling. But in 1998, they found that the light from distant supernovae was dimmer than expected, implying that space is accelerating outwards. The findings proved to be…
