Scary Speed

It is damned hard to figure out how fast you're going without a speedometer.  Apparently, that goes for astronomers and cosmologists as well.  A new(ish) theory proposes that present observations of our Universe's speed are skewed.

For decades scientists of varied disciplines have struggled with a physics-busting problem.  Careful observation of our Universe seems to show it is expanding ever faster.  This is completely opposite of what standard Newtonian theory demonstrates.  Gravity should pull the Universe together, steadily slowing everthing.  Instead, scientists are calculating from observations that the expansion of the Universe is actually speeding up.

Much work has been done to explain those observations and calculations.  The observations date back to Mr. Hubble, a fellow with a constant and a space telescope named after him.  Since then science has slowly improved distance and speed measurements of stars and galaxies, allowing better models of the expanding Universe.

More and more clearly, it seems the expanding Universe isn't coasting to a stop from the Big Bang, but somehow speeding up.  Dark Energy and Dark Matter are popular explanations for accelerated expansion; Dark Energy is a pushy anti-gravity and Dark Matter accounts for missing mass in acceleration calculations.

All this depends on accurate measurements of the direction and speed of distant galaxies.  It also depends on an assumption that everything in the Universe is moving in a more-or-less even fashion, including us.

Christos Tsagas, a cosmologist at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, proposes an elegant alternate theory dubbed 'Dark Flow.'   What if our local bit of the Universe was moving rapidly in a somewhat different direction from most of the rest of the Universe?  Taking into account a different vector of Earth and a 'bubble' of local galaxies, his calculations show the Universe is obeying gravity.  Dark Matter and Dark Energy would no longer be needed.  Accelerated expansion is an illusion of our own atypical motion.

Mr. Tsagas theory is not being met with open arms, but also not with total dismissal.  However, my question is this - just what is sucking us away from the rest of the Universe?

Scared?