Dark energy: is it real?

Science writer Brian Clegg has doubts, as he explains

The discovery of dark energy has changed our whole understanding of how the universe expands and evolves over time – but does it really exist? One person who isn’t so sure is Brian Clegg, author of Dark Matter and Dark Energy

What’s the problem with dark energy?

I have a lot of sympathy with the idea that it doesn’t exist at all. The original measurement was based on a correction of the data to handle the fact that both the Milky Way and supernovae are moving, but there are huge assumptions required to do this. Some recent work, using a much larger dataset, eliminated some of these assumptions and produced no dark energy effect.

What research could be done to resolve things?

The study I mentioned looked at 740 supernovae, compared with about 110 in the original study. We need to get more data still, and more accuracy as equipment is upgraded, to get a clearer picture.