the world (or at least the universe) is flat

“Hello! Anybody out there?“

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11810553

Read the article, or read the highlights:

“Even though gravity holds that everything should attract everything else, in every direction astronomers look there is evidence that things are in fact moving apart – with those objects further away moving faster.” There’s more than one answer to these questions, pointing me in a crooked line…

“Dark energy is believed to pervade the essence of space and time, forcing a kind of  ‘anti-gravity’ that fits cosmologists’ equations but that is otherwise a mysterious quantity.” A member of my family told me this Thanksgiving that he wants me to invent a switch that will turn off the Earth’s gravitational field.

“The team’s conclusions suggest the Universe is indeed flat, an idea first put forth by Albert Einstein…” Einstein, your badassedness never ceases to amaze and astound.

the best one of all, having absolutely nothing to do with science: “Alan Heavens, a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Edinburgh…” With a name like that, how could you aspire to be anything else?

“I don’t think it can tell us in a lot of detail what the dark energy is,” Professor Heavens said. “I think it’s probably not precise enough – certainly not yet.”

Conclusion: As usual, we have very little idea what the heck is going. Isn’t it fantastic?

Tags: Dark matter, the world is flat