Is Dark Energy Getting Stronger?

The power of Dark Energy may be increasing as the universe ages. Subtle clues are emerging that the accepted model for the nature of dark energy and dark matter may not be all that. We saw the first such clue recently in our recent episode on the Crisis in Cosmology. Today we’re doing a Space Time Journal Club to reveal another clue. We’re looking at a new paper in Nature Astronomy, “Cosmological constraints from the Hubble diagram of quasars at high redshifts” by Risaliti and Lusso. It hints that the cosmological constant may not be so constant after all. In fact it may be increasing. If this is true, then our prediction for the future of our universe looks VERY different, and may involve the entire universe tearing itself to shreds at the subatomic level in the Big Rip.