Dark Energy?

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maeklos

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Just a thought: Could the effect of so-called "dark energy" on the accelerating expansion of the universe be attributed to other means? Such as, say, light? Could it be possible that the light from so many sources outside of a galaxy are caught by the gas and dark matter existing inside a galaxy, acting like a giant "galactic sail"? We know that gravity has diminishing effect over distance, so is it possible that the steady "push" of photons against a galaxy would create a type of "drag" effect that caushes two galaxies to move away from each other? It'd be like aiming a spray from a garden hose at a golf ball. Once the golf ball's inertia is overcome (gravity, on the galactic scale), the ball will start rolling.<br /><br />Just a thought. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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alkalin

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I’m willing to play along on this as long as the sun’s photons do not start us rolling around the golf course like golf balls. A very intense beam of photons can move objects, but I think we would be fried if we faced such intensity. Photon density is far insufficient to push on distant galaxies. Light density has the same inverse square law that gravity has with distance, except light pressure is far weaker. For example, Andromeda is heading toward our galaxy, and I do not think any high amount of photons is going to stop it, reason being gravity is king. And we do not see galaxies fly apart due to photon pressure coming from the stars in them. Hope this does not discourage you from being inventive on this type of issue.
 
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alokmohan

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Dark energy is sortof decelation force. It counts for 70 percent of matter in the universe.
 
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maeklos

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Dark energy and dark matter are two separate things...dark matter represents up to 70% of the universe (though some conservative estimates put this at closer to 30%). Dark energy is a force that works against gravity, a repulsive instead of attractive force.<br /><br />Getting back to my original query, since there is no coefficient of drag in space (as it's empty and all) aside from gravity, which gets weaker and weaker over distance, any kinetic energy directed against an object will increase its velocity - it will never slow down until another force is exerted on it in the opposite direction.<br />This means that the accelerating expansion of the universe is occuring due to one of three reasons, or a combination of two or more: an existing force or type of energy is "pushing" against objects, as even the minuscule amount of kinetic energy in a photon can add up with trillions upon trillions of photons acting on an entire galaxy over the course of billions of years; an unknown source of gravity outside of the detectable universe (14+ billion lightyears away) exerting an increasing amount of gravitic force on galaxies, etc, as they get closed to some kind of gravitic barrier or universe event horizon; or a mysterious type of repulsive "anti-gravity", i.e. dark energy.<br />Since two of those three reasons involve known elements (kinetic energy and gravity, respectively), I'm more inclined to think along lines of a known quantity rather than inventing something else entirely to "fill in the holes". That reminds me too much of primitive peoples attributing the unexplained to a god force when they couldn't find the answers themselves. <br /><br />Of course, another alternative to this is that space itself is repulsive, that is, it exerts outward force on matter as it itself expands. Gravity may not be an attractive force...it might merely be a mass-shadow effect of matter imprinting against the outward expansionistic force of the universe. In effect, creating "shoals" in a <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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alokmohan

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Possibly wrong.Dark energy is 70 percent of matter in the universe.
 
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