As if dark energy weren't already mysterious and baffling enough, new research suggests that this unknown force may not be driving galaxies apart at an accelerating rate anymore.

This remarkable result comes from research that suggests that the expansion of the universe has already begun to slow, contrary to the currently favored belief that dark energy is still accelerating the expansion of the cosmos. The discovery also follows results from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) that last year indicated that dark energy is weakening.

This research could not only revolutionize our understanding of the universe as it is today, but also offer clues about how our cosmos will end. If dark energy has already lost the battle against gravity, the next step after slowing cosmic expansion could be the contraction of space, and that could suggest the universe will end in a "Big Crunch" scenario akin to the Big Bang playing in reverse.

The researchers behind this discovery are already hailing it as a possible paradigm shift in how we think about the very nature of the universe. "Our study shows that the universe has already entered a phase of decelerated expansion at the present epoch and that dark energy evolves with time much more rapidly than previously thought," Young-Wook Lee, team leader and researcher at Yonsei University in South Korea, said in a statement. "If these results are confirmed, it would mark a major paradigm shift in cosmology since the discovery of dark energy 27 years ago."