Dark energy
Dark energy is a hypothetical form of energy proposed to explain why the universe’s expansion is accelerating. It is thought to act as a “negative pressure” that pushes galaxies apart, overcoming gravity on the largest scales, and its existence helps explain the universe’s overall structure and its eventual destiny.
- Accelerated expansion: The primary purpose of dark energy is to explain why the universe isn’t just expanding, but doing so at an ever-increasing speed.
- Dominant component: It is believed to make up about 68% of the total energy content of the universe, dominating over both dark matter (about 27%) and ordinary matter (about 5%).
- Global effect: Dark energy is distributed uniformly throughout space, meaning it has a global effect on the universe as a whole by accelerating the expansion of space itself, rather than having a local gravitational pull like matter.
- Cosmic destiny: Understanding dark energy is key to predicting the ultimate fate of the universe, including whether galaxies will continue to drift further apart or if the universe will undergo some other fate.
- Cosmological constant: Some theories equate dark energy to Einstein’s “cosmological constant,” a fundamental property of empty space that has a constant energy density, which becomes more significant as the universe expands.
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[1] https://science.nasa.gov/dark-energy/
[2] https://www.space.com/dark-energy-what-is-it
[4] https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/research/topic/dark-energy-and-dark-matter
[5] https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/dark-matter/en/
[6] https://home.cern/science/physics/dark-matter
[7] https://news.uchicago.edu/explainer/dark-energy-explained
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