Thereâs something very odd going on in space â something that shouldnât be possible. It is as though vast swathes of the universe are being hoovered up by a vast and unseen celestial vacuum cleaner. Sasha Kaslinsky, the scientist who discovered the phenomenon, is understandably nervous: âIt left us quite unsettled and jitteryâ he says, âbecause this is not something we planned to findâ. The accidental discovery of what is ominously being called âdark flowâ not only has implications for the destinies of large numbers of galaxies â it also means that large numbers of scientists might have to find a new way of understanding the universe. Dark flow is the latest in a long line of phenomena that have threatened to re-write the textbooks. Does it herald a new era of understanding, or does it simply mean that everything we know about the universe is wrong? .
2010-03-09