Dark Energy Research Papers

The basis of the multiverse theory rests in multiple scientific concepts. For example, Greene describes the incredible discovery made by scientists in the 1990s that the expansion of the universe – long believed to

Dark matter and dark energy are two entities that have very little known about them, except that they make up about 95 percent of the universe. Even though this is a large part of the universe, it wasn’t even thought about until the 1960’s or the 1970’s. This is because of the fact that it is very hard to detect and almost impossible to see. Although it is impossible to see, we can see the effects of them both in our galaxy.

The visible universe- including Earth, the sun, other stars, and galaxies is made of protons, neutrons, and electrons bundled together into atoms (National Geographic, 2012). Astronomers use the term ‘baryonic’ to refer to all objects made of normal atomic matter, essentially ignoring the presence of electrons (Swinburne University, 2015). Baryons interact with each other through gravity, nuclear forces and the electrostatic force. These interactions are what allow baryonic matter (such as stars) to emit light (Grocutt, 2012). One of the most surprising discoveries of the 20th century was this ordinary, or baryonic, matter makes up less than 5 percent of mass of the universe. The rest of the universe appears to be made of a mysterious, invisible substance called dark matter (25 percent) and a force that repels gravity known as dark energy (70 percent) (National Geographic, 2012).

There is perhaps no current problem of greater importance to astrophysics and cosmology than that of "dark matter". The controversy, as the name implies, is centered on the notion that there may exist an enormous amount of matter in the Universe that cannot be detected from the light that it emits. The evidence of dark matter is from the motions of astronomical objects, specifically stellar, galactic, and galaxy cluster/supercluster observations.

Astronomers believe there is enough dark matter in the universe to slow its expansion gradually toward a stop.

There have been many theories concerning what the universe looks like, how it became this way, and where it is going. The most popular theory that people hold today is that the universe began when all the matter ever present in the universe was contained in a tiny speck and that spec exploded. This is known as the Big Bang. This theory has developed a great deal since it was first conceptualized and continues to evolve today. Many different scientists have had a hand in this.

Scientists do not have the ability to directly observe black holes with telescopes that detect x-rays, light, or other forms of electromagnetic radiation. However, Scientists can infer the presence of black holes and study them by detecting their effect on other matter nearby. If a black holes passes through a cloud of interstellar matter, it will draw that matter inward in a process known as accretion. A similar process will occur if a black holes passes a normal star. So, after a black hole is created, it draws in anything in its path adding to the extreme amount of matter that is packed into that very small area.

During the 1970s, dark matter had been discovered accidentally by astronomers Vera Rubin and Kent Ford, they were observing galaxies and they noticed that stars far from the galaxy centre had a velocity similar to the celestial objects closer in. The observation was unexpected due to the visible mass of galaxies lacking the required gravity to keep the further stars in the orbit, therefore the astronomers were faced with a “missing mass” problem and the concept of dark matter had been created (16). The main problem with dark matter is that we can’t observe it directly, we must indirectly study its interaction with normal matter to be learn more about it (17). There may be a misconception between what is observed and what is known to be there, for example; if a man is floating mid-air, due to the fact that humans are unable to fly; it can be concluded that there must be something holding the man up there (2). In 1997, Hubble Space Telescope revealed light from far galaxies bent due a mass of 250 times greater than the visible mass which that scientists believe dark matter is the reason for (18). Also, NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory had been used by astronomers to measure the allocation of dark matter in an immense constellation of galaxies located around a billion light year from earth, the cluster is engulfed by a significant amount of clouds of hot gas, from the observation it had been found that the amount of dark matter is a hundred trillion more than the mass of the sun which held the cluster of gravities together (17). Comprehending dark matter is an important task to understand the most vital aspects of the

Overall, even though normal matter has been studied by ancient and modern scientists and philosophers, it was found that it represents only the smallest ratio of the universe. Meanwhile, the concept of the largest ratio, Dark matter and dark energy, were not introduced until the 20th century because they were invincible, hard to detect and only their effects can be seen using indirect methods. Dark matter and dark energy are similar in the sense that they cannot be observed, hard to detect, and not much is known about them. Dark matter is a matter that have its own mass and interact with gravity keeping the stars and plants in their orbits. While dark energy is an energy that create more space as time pass increasing the distance of galaxies

Even though dark matter is in existence we don’t have the instruments available to detect it yet. A theory suggests that dark matter is what actually makes up a large portion of our universe. Even though we can’t detect it, we know dark matter exists because it can interact gravitationally with visible matter and radiation. A professor from New York stated that dark matter plays a large role in causing geological catastrophes as well as mass extinction.

Science is finally stumped at the growth of the universe. Originally it was believed that the Universe would have to slow its expansion over time, especially due to gravity and its effects on matter. But NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has observed a distant supernovae that found that the Universe is expanding 29 percent faster than scientists thought.

One theory on this is the possibility that the expansion of the universe is just a property of “empty space”. This theory has to do with the fact that empty space is not empty and may have its own form of energy that makes galaxies continually spread out. A similar theory suggests that the universe’s expansion is due to the virtual particles popping in and out of existence in an incredibly short amount of time. This theory suggests that these particles give off a small amount of energy that could expand the universe. Another theory claims that dark energy is an energetic fluid that fills empty space and expands all of space.

Dark Matter and Dark Energy are important. They can help us know how the universe began. These two are the mysteries of the universe; they compose about 90% of the universe. They are mysteries because we believe that they exist but we can’t see them or detect them. People question whether they manifest to be the same thing. Astronomers know very little about their constitution so they cannot assume they are related.

Dark Matter was first proposed by Fritz Zwicky in the 1930’s when he observed the motions of galaxies and he noticed that the amount of visible objects could not account for the observations he made. There had to be some “invisible” mass holding these galaxies together. It is known that 25% of our universe is made up dark matter versus 4% of the visible matter we know and interact with every day. The leading candidates for dark matter are MACHOs and WIMPS. Gravitational lensing is one of the ways we can infer the presence dark matter, since we cannot see it directly. With the discovery of dark matter, the standard model of physics no longer answers all the questions. For that, we need another model, called supersymmetry.

The theory of dark matter stems from the fact that there is not enough normal matter, as the gravity of normal matter isn’t strong enough to form galaxies and complex structures. The stars will more likely be disorganized and not form galaxies. Hence we know there is some exterior reason, something that does emit or reflect light, something dark. All we know is that there is something out there, there is a lot of it and it has something to do with gravity. The most popular idea is that within the cosmos there is a dominant source of gravity which is an unidentified type of mass which cannot be seen by the naked eye known as dark matter. Dark matter