Is our universe's expansion reversing?

Recent observations suggest that dark energy — the enigmatic force propelling the universe's accelerated expansion and making 70% of its mass budget — may be diminishing over time. This revelation, published in the journal Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics, could fundamentally alter our understanding of the universe and its ultimate fate.

Using the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) telescope in Arizona, the United States, a team of 1,000 DESI researchers has come to the conclusion that dark energy's influence is not constant, as previously thought – in fact it’s losing steam.

More to read:
Study: our universe might be merging with parallel baby universes

Their evidence is based on a comprehensive analysis of data from over 15 million galaxies, which suggest that the universe's expansion, once believed to be steadily accelerating, might actually be slowing down. This groundbreaking discovery challenges the long-standing cosmological model that treats dark energy as a constant force intrinsic to space itself.

Complementing these findings, the European Space Agency's Euclid mission has released its first set of data, capturing images of 26 million galaxies across 10 billion years of cosmic history. These observations offer unprecedented insights into the large-scale structure of the universe and the role of dark energy in its evolution.

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Scientist: Our entire universe is inside a black hole

The implications of a weakening dark energy are profound. If confirmed, it could mean that the universe's expansion might eventually halt or even reverse, leading to scenarios vastly different from the perpetual expansion currently envisioned.

Avi Loeb, head of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University’s Black Hole Initiative, claims in a recent post on Medium that the cosmos’ contraction back to the point where it all had started – Big Crunch - is one of three theoretical scenarios proposed as the cause of death of our universe in a very distant future.

Big Freeze and Vacuum Decay are the other two possibilities.

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