Endless Facts, One Snippet at a Time
Dark Energy: The Force Driving Expansion Faster
- Dark energy makes up about 68% of the universe—yet its nature remains a mystery.
- It was discovered in the late 1990s when astronomers found the universe’s expansion is accelerating.
- Unlike gravity, which pulls matter together, dark energy pushes space apart.
- Type Ia supernovae—stellar explosions used as “standard candles”—revealed its existence.
- Dark energy may be a property of space itself, linked to Einstein’s cosmological constant.
- It dominates the cosmic energy budget, outweighing both dark matter and normal matter.
- Its strength appears uniform across the universe, acting everywhere at once.
- The fate of the universe depends on dark energy’s nature—endless expansion or something stranger.
- It remains one of science’s greatest puzzles, uniting cosmology, physics, and quantum theory.
- Every galaxy racing away faster is a silent clue to dark energy’s invisible power.