Dark Energy

Exponential Expansion

The universe is expanding, and it’s actually doing it faster and faster.

But how is the expansion of the universe accelerating?

There seems to be some kind of energy that does this, something that is everywhere that cannot be seen. This is what we now call “Dark Energy”.

What is the Universe made of?

Normal matter, the one that we interact with everyday, only makes up about 5% of the total mass-energy of the universe. Dark matter makes up about 27%, and dark energy is a surprising 68%.

What exactly is it?

We have some ideas of what it could possibly be, but we are far from certain.

Dark energy may simply be an unknown property of space itself.

Or it could be from quantum fluctuations, which is the creation and annihilation of virtual particles that release energy.

What do you think dark energy is?