



Dr. Tom Shanks , from the Department of Physics, and graduate student Utane Sawangwit, both from the University of Durham (in Durham, England), studied data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe ( WMAP ).As the WMAP website states, 'The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) is a NASA Explorer mission that launched June 2001 to make fundamental measurements of cosmology -- the study of the properties of our universe as a whole. WMAP has been stunningly successful, producing our new Standard Model of Cosmology. WMAP continues to collect high quality scientific data.'The WMAP data was taken from analyses of the heat left over from the Big Bang--what is called remnant heat.Previous data taken from the WMAP concluded that the universe is made up of 4% normal matter, 22% of dark matter, and 74% of dark energy. And, astronomers are not in agreement with these percentages.However, according to the June 11, 2010 Royal Astronomical Society (BAS) article ' Durham astronomers' doubts about the 'dark side' ', the astronomers' data suggests that, ''¦ dark matter and dark energy are not present after all.'The BAS article also contends that based on the research performed by Shanks and Sawangwit: ''¦ the conventional wisdom about the content of the Universe may be wrong,' which makes ''¦ the standard model of the Universe open to question.'



Page two concludes with comments from the two authors.

The conclusions of their study were published in a letter to the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Their work also appears in the article ' Beam profile sensitivity of the WMAP CMB power spectrum ' within the ArXiv.org website, and in the UKADS article ' Cross-correlating WMAP5 with 1.5 million LRGs: a new test for the ISW effect ."Sawangwit is quoted in the RAS article, He states, "If our result is repeated in new surveys of galaxies in the Southern Hemisphere then this could mean real problems for the existence of dark energy."The article continues with: 'If the Universe really has no 'dark side', it will come as a relief to some theoretical physicists. Having a model dependent on as yet undetected exotic particles that make up dark matter and the completely mysterious dark energy leaves many scientists feeling uncomfortable. It also throws up problems for the birth of stars in galaxies, with as much 'feedback' energy needed to prevent their creation as gravity provides to help them form.'Dr. Shanks concludes the RAS article with: "Odds are that the standard model with its enigmatic dark energy and dark matter will survive -- but more tests are needed. The European PLANCK satellite, currently out there collecting more CMB data will provide vital new information and help us answer these fundamental questions about the nature of the Universe we live in."Please read the before-mentioned RAS article in more detail for further information on the composition of the Universe. Is it wrong or right? Does dark matter and dark energy exist or not?