Something strange is suppressing growth of the universe, says study

We often hear that the Universe is expanding and that expansion is even accelerating. But scientists are now saying that something mysterious is slowing the rate of growth. In other words, the growth is not taking place as fast as previously believed.

But before we turn to the actual study, a little lesson about what this study is about.

This study deals with 'large-scale structures' in the Universe. These are largest known structure in the universe and are made up of gas and Dark Matter. The large-scale structures take form of 'filaments' that make up what's known as the cosmic web.

The large-scale structures can be considered to be 'pipes' inside which galaxies travel through space. These pipes or filaments as they are actually called, intersect with each other and form the cosmic web.

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The study says that these large-scale structures are not growing at an expected rate that's predicted by standard model of cosmology.

The study has been carried out by scientists at University of Michigan. Minh Nguyen an astrophysicist and cosmologist at the university, who led the team of scientists says that growth of the large-scale structures has been suppressed in modern era of the universe.

Vice News has said that the study has been published in Physical Review Letters.

“We did not set out to look for evidence of a late-time suppression specifically,” said Nguyen in an email to Motherboard. “Our original intention was to see whether the history of the cosmic background expansion is consistent with the history of cosmic structure growth.”

"The universe has always been expanding, and lately the expansion has accelerated,” he continued. “This expansion has always acted as a ‘friction’ against the growth of cosmic structures (while gravity has the opposite effect to growth). Therefore—even within the standard model—we also expect growth to be suppressed..."

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