Cosmologists have a new guess about why the universe is expanding outward faster than data says it ought to.

The hypothesis, according to research first shared on the preprint server ArXiv in November, goes as follows: When the universe was just a mere 100,000 years old, a mysterious energy field that scientists are calling “early dark energy” formed, rapidly pushing the still-forming cosmos outward even faster than before.

Another 100.000 years after that, the research suggests, the strange energy field faded away — and left the young, accelerated universe to its own devices.

Let’s Back Up

This new proposal is one of several intended to solve the discrepancy between the calculated rate of the universe’s expansion and actual observations of the cosmos as they rocket outward away from us, according to The New York Times.

Read more HERE