Its embarrassing, but astrophysicists are the first to admit it.
Our besttheoretical modelcan only explain 5 percent of the universe.
So even though there are a billion trillion stars in the observable universe, they are actually extremely rare.
The two mysterious dark substances can only be inferred from gravitational effects.
Dark energy is a repulsive force that makes the universe expand at an accelerating rate.
The two have always been treated as separate phenomena.
Negative masses are not a new idea in cosmology.
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However, studies have shown that the force driving the accelerating expansion of the universe is relentlessly constant.
This inconsistency has previously led researchers to abandon this idea.
If a dark fluid exists, it should not thin out over time.
We now know from observational evidence that this is incorrect.
However, that doesnt mean that negative mass matter cant be continuously created.
I show that this assumed dark fluid is never spread too thinly.
Instead it behaves exactly like dark energy.
Dark matter was introduced to explain the fact that galaxies are spinningmuch faster than our models predict.
This implies that some additional invisible matter must be present to prevent them from spinning themselves apart.
My model shows that the surrounding repulsive force from dark fluid can also hold a galaxy together.
It therefore appears that a simple minus sign may solve one of the longest standing problems in physics.
Is the universe really this weird?
One may argue that this sounds a little far fetched.
But while negative masses are bizarre, they are considerably less strange than you may immediately think.
Whether physically real or not, negative masses already have a theoretical role in a vast number of areas.
Air bubbles in water can be modeled as having a negative mass.
Recent laboratory research has also generated particles thatbehave exactly as they would if they had negative mass.
And physicists are already comfortable with the concept of negative energy density.
This can even create a tiny force that can be measured in the lab.
The new study could help solve many problems in modern physics.
The theory could also solve the problem of measuring the universes expansion.
This has led to acrisis in cosmology.
Fortunately, a negative mass cosmology mathematically predicts that the Hubble constant should vary over time.
Clearly, there is evidence that this weird and unconventional new theory deserves our scientific attention.
Despite these efforts, a negative mass cosmology could be wrong.
However, it is often the out-of-the-box ideas that provide answers to longstanding problems.
The strong accumulating evidence has now grown to the point that we must consider this unusual possibility.
So as with all scientific discoveries, the adventure does not end here.
