Einstein was right. Astronomers have analyzed the largest map of the Universe and reported the result

According to a series of new studies, astronomers have analyzed the largest map of the Universe. Scientists found that Einstein was right about gravity again.

The analysis, which looked at nearly 6 million galaxies and quasars spanning 11 billion years of space time, showed that even on a colossal scale, the force of gravity behaves as predicted by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity. According to the researchers, the result confirms the leading theory of the Universe of cosmologists, but limits alternative theories of gravity, LiveScience writes.

"General relativity has been very well tested on the scale of solar systems, but we also needed to test whether our assumption works on a much larger scale," said Pauline Zarrouk, a cosmologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).

"Studying the rate of galaxy formation allows us to directly test our theories, and so far we are in line with the predictions of general relativity on a cosmological scale," the scientist added.

Cosmologists have long been discussing the behavior of gravity over long distances. The most widely accepted theory, called the lambda model of cold dark matter, builds on Einstein's theory to offer the most comprehensive view of a wide range of astronomical phenomena.

But doubts about some of the elements in the model, such as dark matter and dark energy-two mysterious entities that do not interact with light but make up most of the mass and energy in the universe-along with the model's inability to predict some observations, have prompted opposing sides to advocate alternative explanations.

One of them is modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND), which suggests that for gravitational forces that are 10 trillion times smaller than those felt on the surface of the Earth, such as the tug between distant galaxies, Newton's laws (on which general relativity is based) are violated and must be replaced by other equations.

To find clues about how gravity behaves on a large scale, the researchers turned to the first year of data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), a telescope in Arizona that accurately determines the lunar positions of millions of galaxies, to study how the universe has expanded up to the present day.

Scientists conducted a complete analysis that made a precise measurement of the growth of galactic structures over time. It was found that even though dark energy can evolve over time, the structure of the Universe exactly matches the predictions made in Einstein's theory.

"This is the first time DESI has looked at the growth of cosmic structure. We demonstrate an extraordinary new ability to probe modified gravity and improve the constraints on dark energy models. And this is just the tip of the iceberg," said Dragan Huterer, professor of theoretical cosmology and astrophysics at the University of Michigan and one of the DESI team leaders.

The data collected by DESI should be released in the spring of 2025. The experiment, which is still ongoing, will collect data from about 40 million galaxies and quasars.

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