In the early 1990's, scientists
had pretty much agreed that the rate that the universe was expanding
had to be slowing down. It was assumed that, over time, gravity
would begin to slow the expansion of the Universe. However, in 1998
information provided by the Hubble Space Telescope contradicted the
theory based on logic. The Hubble's Photos proved that the universe
had not been slowing down. On the contrary, it has been speeding up!
Science proved again to be unpredictable. Theorists still have no
accepted theory to explain how the universe is expanding, the only
thing they do know is that they are calling this solution dark
energy.
The only thing we know for sure
is how much dark energy is in the known universe. We know how much
there is because we understand the way dark energy affects the
universe's expansion. Astonishingly, dark energy makes up 70% of the
universe; there is more dark energy than there is anything else in
the universe. In a distant second, dark matter accounts for 25% of
the universe.
Other
than that, it is a complete mystery. But it is an important mystery.
It turns out that roughly 70% of the Universe is dark energy. Dark
matter is a distant second, making up about 25% of the Universe.
Now if you have been paying attention you might have realized that
matter, as we know it, (rocks, buildings, planets, stars, galaxies,
everything that we can see,) adds up to less than 5% of the universe.
All of this being considered, would not dark matter be the standard
in the universe because there is only a fraction the amount of
matter.
So
far the best answer for todays question has come from, who else?
Albert Einstein.
In one
version of Einstein's gravity theory he includes a “cosmic
constant.” Einstein described this constant as a counter balance
for gravity. (After all, everything in the universe is supposed to
balance out, hypothetically). Einstein's “cosmic constant” and
today's “dark energy” are the same thing. In this version of
Einstein's gravitational theory, dark energy pushes against matter's
gravity causing all matter to move further apart from one another at
an increasing rate because of the “cosmic constant.”
