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Incredible 3D map of galaxies reveals Einstein's theory of general relativity is still valid 13 BILLION light years from Earth

Universe is expanding and getting faster in its acceleration as it does
This could be because of general relativity breaking down or dark matter
International team of researchers has made a 3D map of 3,000 galaxies
Found general relativity holds up at 13 billion light years away

Published: 12:36 GMT, 11 May 2016 | Updated: 19:30 GMT, 11 May 2016

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The universe has been expanding since the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago and it's getting faster in its acceleration as it 'grows'.

But scientists are unsure what causes the acceleration and theories range from mysterious dark energy to Einstein's theory of general relativity breaking down.

Now a new study has peered further into space than ever before to proved Einstein's theory still holds up at such vast distances, effectively ruling out the latter explanation.

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The FastSound Project's 3D map of the large-scale structure of a region in the Universe about 4.7 billion years after the Big Bang. This area covers 2.5 times 3 degrees of the sky, with a radial distance spanning 12-14.5 billion light years in comoving distance or 8-9.6 billion light years in light travel distance

An international team of researchers has made a 3D map of 3,000 galaxies 13 billion light years from Earth.

It found that Einstein's general theory of relativity is still valid - 101 years after it was first published.

WHAT IS DARK MATTER?

When physicists study the dynamics of galaxies and the movement of stars, they are confronted with a mystery.

If they only take visible matter into account, their equations simply don't add up: the elements that can be observed are not sufficient to explain the rotation of objects and the existing gravitational forces.

There is something missing.

From this they deduced that there must be an invisible kind of matter that does not interact with light, but does, as a whole, interact by means of the gravitational force.

Called 'dark matter', this substance appears to make up at least 80 per cent of the universe.

In the late 1990s scientists discovered the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate, and since then, people have been trying to explain why.

The rate of acceleration is known as the Hubble constant, and astronomers have spent years trying to quantify its speed.

To test Einstein's theory, the Japanese-led research team used data on more than 3,000 distant galaxies to analyse their velocities and clustering.

The results indicate even far into the universe, general relativity is valid.

This means the expansion of the universe could be explained by a cosmological constant, like dark matter, as proposed by Einstein in his theory of general relativity.

'We tested the theory of general relativity further than anyone else ever has,' Dr Teppei Okumura, of the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe in Japan, said.

'It's a privilege to be able to publish our results 100 years after Einstein proposed his theory.'

Professor Karl Glazebrook from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, who first proposed the survey, said 'having started this project 12 years ago it gives me great pleasure to finally see this result come out.'

To test Einstein's theory, the Japanese-led research team used data on more than 3,000 distant galaxies to analyse their velocities and clustering. The growth rate and its evolution of the large-scale structure is pictured. Horizontal axis shows the redshift as well as the comoving distance

This survey is one of the strategic observation programs at the Subaru Telescope, and used 40 nights of its telescope time from 2012 to 2014.

No-one had previously been able to analyse galaxies more than 10 billion light years away.

However, the team managed to break this barrier using the FMOS (Fibre Multi-Object Spectrograph) on the Subaru Telescope.

It can analyse galaxies 12.4 to 14.7 billion light years away.

The next step will be to use the Prime Focus Spectrograph, currently under construction, which is expected to be able to study galaxies even further away.

The findings of the new study were published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan.

WHAT IS THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY?

Albert Einstein (pictured) came up with his General Theory of Relativity in 1916

In 1905, Albert Einstein determined that the laws of physics are the same for all non-accelerating observers, and that the speed of light in a vacuum was independent of the motion of all observers - known as the theory of special relativity.

This groundbreaking work introduced a new framework for all of physics, and proposed new concepts of space and time.

He then spent 10 years trying to include acceleration in the theory, finally publishing his theory of general relativity in 1915.

This determined that massive objects cause a distortion in space-time, which is felt as gravity.

At its simplest, it can be thought of as a giant rubber sheet with a bowling ball in the centre.

As the ball warps the sheet, a planet bends the fabric of space-time, creating the force that we feel as gravity.

Any object that comes near to the body falls towards it because of the effect.

Einstein predicted that if two massive bodies came together it would create such a huge ripple in space time that it should be detectable on Earth.

It was most recently demonstrated in the hit film film Interstellar.

In a segment that saw the crew visit a planet which fell within the gravitational grasp of a huge black hole, the event caused time to slow down massively.

Crew members on the planet barely aged while those on the ship were decades older on their return.

Image of the Orion nebula taken by the Subaru Telescope. As well as pictures of nebulae, the FMOS (Fibre Multi-Object Spectrograph) on the Subaru Telescope, can analyze galaxies 12.4 to 14.7 billion light years away