Embrace the lumpiverse: How mess kills dark energy - physics-math - 25 June 2014 - New Scientist

Embrace the lumpiverse: How mess kills dark energy - physics-math - 25 June 2014 - New Scientist: Wiltshire takes issue with the last of the motions used to make the dipole anisotropy disappear: a movement at a speed of 635 kilometres per second of the entire Local Group towards a "great attractor" somewhere in the distant Hydra-Centaurus supercluster of galaxies...

They claim the galaxies' movements make most sense if the Local Group isn't moving at all. Instead, the greater density of matter towards Hydra-Centaurus is slowing the universe's expansion along our line of sight, giving us the impression of such a movement. A comparative void in the other direction, meanwhile, is producing the opposite effect, causing an area of faster expansion behind us. The effects of the inhomogeneities along this axis are comparatively local, occurring on scales up to about 300 million light years, and only alter the universe's expansion rate by some 0.5 per cent. But they are sufficient to account for nearly all of the dipole anisotropy – and so colour our view of the entire universe...

This suggests that the age of the universe could be as much as 18.6 billion years in places where a low density of matter means the clock has ticked particularly fast. Our own smaller estimate of the universe's age is a natural consequence of sitting in an area of unusually high density: a galaxy.

Blow for 'dark flow' in Planck's new view of the cosmos

Blow for 'dark flow' in Planck's new view of the cosmos: This flow suggested that the universe had somehow become lopsided, as if space-time itself was behaving like a tilted table and matter was sliding off...
The latest search is based on a new, higher-resolution map of the cosmic microwave background from Planck. The Planck team says their multi-pronged analysis also found no evidence of galaxy clusters gushing along in a coherent stream.