New results from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) suggest that the unknown force accelerating the expansion of the universe isn't what we believed it to be. This hints that our best theory of the universe's evolution, the standard model of cosmology, could be wrong.

The newly released DESI data comes from its first three years of observations collected as the instrument, mounted on the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, continues to build the largest 3D map of the universe ever created. By the time DESI completes its five-year mission next year, the instrument will have measured the light from an estimated 50 million galaxies and black hole-powered quasars, in addition to the starlight of over 10 million stars.