Origins of Dark Energy with Adam Riess

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Dec 16, 2025

Adam Riess, an acclaimed astrophysicist and Nobel laureate, joins the hosts to explore the mind-boggling concepts of dark energy and the universe's accelerating expansion. He shares how his team used distant Type Ia supernovae to uncover this accelerating growth. The discussion touches on the perplexing Hubble tension, a discrepancy in cosmic measurements, and potential new physics that could explain it. Riess also reveals the future of cosmic exploration with new observatories aiming to deepen our understanding of dark energy.

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ANECDOTE

Discovery Came From A Surprising Computer Result

Adam Riess recounts how his computer fit the supernova data and returned a negative mass, forcing him to confront acceleration.
He realized Einstein's cosmological constant explained the unexpected accelerating expansion like a glove.

ANECDOTE

Nobel Medal Stories And Supernova Gold

Riess describes receiving the Nobel Prize medal and jokes about its gold origin from supernovae.
He recounts anecdotes about TSA confusion and the medal's weight and provenance.

INSIGHT

Lambda-CDM Predicts Today’s Expansion

The Lambda-CDM model unifies dark energy and cold dark matter into a precise cosmological framework.
That model predicts today’s expansion rate, creating the Hubble tension when compared to local measurements.

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How did scientists discover evidence for dark energy? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Paul Mecurio explore dark energy, Hubble tension, and the beginning and end of the universe with astrophysicist and Nobel laureate, Adam Riess.

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