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- The large shells of radiation and material emitted by distant (ancient) supernovae appear to have a greater area than they would in a topologically flat space, making the source look very faint.
- The visible universe appears larger, deeper, younger, and emptier than previously suspected.
- Unexpected dimness of early supernovae gives the impression they are further away than their redshifts indicate, altering the predicted structure of the cosmos.
- These observations indicate that 96 percent of the matter and energy in the universe is missing (dark).
- Light from very remote objects takes longer to reach Earth—as if time and space (and the light propagating through it) were continually and increasingly ‘stretched’ with larger distances.
- The universe could be as young as 12.5 billion years old—a figure at odds with the age of some of the objects in it.
The supernovae survey (especially the one led by led by astronomer Saul Perlmutter) would set the astronomical community up for another de facto partition—fault-lines between cosmological theories and images clashing dissonantly, especially those preservation schemes proposed by the ones astride them.
The sole permutation between forecasts and the outcome of received data, the slight variation from a smooth Hubble flow (25% off-target), coupled with the recent compelling evidence that the total mass-energy density is insufficient to yield a flat universe has proved to be sufficient to set in accelerated motion the academic continental divide—and not without large seismic tremors.
When cosmologists realized their ship was sinking (due to the tidal-shock-wave), they grabbed their lifeboat (the cosmological constant) and left the women and children, their staff and sponsors, to drown.
Nobody was prepared physically or emotionally, i.e., spiritually, to deal with the conclusions coming to surface in the late 90s. Before 1998, modern cosmology had already begun taking on water. Since 1998, modern cosmology has capsized. The new SNe Ia observational results were not the anticipated circumstances to encourage a direct confrontation with realities, least of all with the realities of the Friedmann or inflationary world-views. Modern cosmology has surrounded itself with myth, evaded the past, and thus eluded the future.
The expansion set on cruise control, now was out-of-control.
CC
