Dark Matter and Dark Energy

As a society, we still do not know very much about dark matter and/or dark energy. It gives off no visible light, hence the reason it is referred to as “dark”. We deduced about dark energy because we figured out it must be the component affecting the universes expansion. Physicists had assumed that gravity would slow the expansion of the universe, yet the universe only shows signs of accelerating. This is theorized to be because of dark energy, which seems to grow stronger with time. Dark matter is creating something from nothing, which contradicts Einstein’s equation of E=MC^2. There is no residual heat or radiation coming from any sort of mass. There is no real explanation for dark energy as of now. Around roughly 74 percent of the universe is dark energy, while dark matter makes up 22 percent.  Dark matter and dark energy are both very difficult concepts for me to try to explain. Dark energy is not visible or detectable. It is not maid of normal matter because of this. We have ruled out many other explanations of what dark matter could be, such as antimatter and black holes.

The big problem with dark matter is that scientists have not found a way to observe it directly because it is impossible to detect with the technology we have today. They know that it exists because of its gravitational effects on other parts of space. The existence of dark matter explains many of the things in space that do not make sense to scientists. For example, gravitational lensing can be explained with the existence of dark matter.

What makes this all very interesting to me is the little amount we know about our universe. Only around 4-5 percent of our universe is visible and known to us. There is so much more we can do, and I am excited to see more developments in the future. 

Sources:

http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/dark-matter/

http://hubblesite.org/hubble_discoveries/dark_energy/de-what_is_dark_energy.php

http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy/