Last month we reported on efforts to check whether the cosmological constant is really constant. We have a preliminary report:
Schaefer decided to test this [cosmological constant] idea by probing deeper back in time, to see if the constant was the same way back then. He did this by studying objects called gamma-ray bursts…
Early results from Schaefer’s study of the movements of gamma-ray bursts suggest that dark energy is different far out in space, and therefore way back in time.
This could explain why the expansion of the universe is speeding up. Maybe it’s not dark energy or vacuum energy. Maybe the nature of space is changing.