A new international analysis says the universe is still expanding at an accelerating rate, preserving the standard view that dark energy continues to drive cosmic growth.
The team says last year's slowdown claim stemmed from analysis errors, including treating a galaxy's age as the age of the exploding star and failing to properly correct for host-galaxy mass.
Type Ia supernova measurements — the basis of the 2011 Nobel-winning discovery of cosmic acceleration — remained consistent after recalibration for different host environments and stellar populations, the researchers said.
The paper, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, resolves the immediate challenge to dark energy's existence but leaves the larger question of what dark energy actually is unanswered.