Everything changed 4 billion years ago: a mysterious force governs the universe, as revealed by recent discoveries.

Throughout the entire history of the Universe, which has existed for 13.8 billion years, various powerful forces have influenced matter, leading to the creation of increasingly complex cosmic structures. A new study published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics reveals that the distribution of matter in the Universe has become less clumpy over billions of years than scientists had anticipated, as noted by Phys.

The authors of the study utilized different sets of data regarding the Universe, gathered from years of observations, and discovered that the formation of large-scale structures in space aligns with the predictions of Einstein's theory of relativity. At the same time, researchers found that in the later Universe, approximately starting from 4 billion years ago, the formation of matter was less clumpy than expected.

Scientists conducted an analysis of the composition of the Universe based on relic radiation, which is the very first light that permeated space about 380,000 years after the Big Bang. Over billions of years, clusters of galaxies distorted this relic radiation due to their gravitational pull, allowing scientists to learn about the distribution of matter in space over billions of years.

They also analyzed data about the later Universe by studying the distribution of millions of massive galaxies, which helps in understanding the distribution of matter.

Thus, the authors of the study were able to create a comprehensive picture of the evolution of large-scale structures in the Universe throughout its history. This enabled them to observe changes in the distribution of matter, specifically how it accumulated and formed clumps, and how the gravitational influence of matter varied during the earlier and later epochs of the Universe's existence.

Researchers discovered that the clumpiness or density fluctuations of matter, which should be present in the late Universe, do not entirely match predictions.

This indicates that cosmic structures did not evolve according to the forecasts of earlier models of the Universe, and the formation and growth of large-scale structures have somehow slowed down, which cannot be fully explained by existing theories.

This may have been caused by the presence of unknown physics that is yet to be discovered. Unknown forces in the Universe might have influenced how matter has been distributed over the past few billion years.

Additionally, scientists believe that the mysterious force of the Universe known as dark energy, which is thought to govern the accelerated expansion of the cosmos, may have a far greater impact on the formation of the structure of the Universe than is currently assumed.

Researchers intend to conduct new observations of the Universe to refine their data and determine whether they are erroneous, as this would significantly alter our understanding of the Universe, particularly regarding its structure and the distribution of matter within it.