SMRTR Science & EngineeringMar 20, 2025NPR

Dark energy is weakening and the universe could (eventually) collapse, study says

SMRTR summary

New research suggests dark energy, the force driving the universe's accelerated expansion, is weakening over time, challenging the belief that it was constant. An international team analyzed data from 15 million galaxies and quasars using the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). This weakening could potentially lead to the universe collapsing on itself in billions of years, supporting the "big crunch" theory. However, such a collapse wouldn't occur for at least another 20 billion years.

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