Light from the earliest stages of the universe is still making its way back to earth. Because light travels at a set maximum speed, it takes time to cross the universe. It also allowed physicists to look back in time.

The launch of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) enabled more accurate observations of the universe on a large scale. However, new evidence disproved this belief. The expansion of the universe was assumed to be slowing down due to the gravity of all the matter in the universe. Observations by telescopes on earth have shown that distant galaxies are moving away from the center of the universe. Since the late 20th century, astrophysicists have known that the universe is expanding. The Hubble Deep Field Image shows a tiny patch of the night sky that has few visible stars. This means 96% of the universe is still a complete mystery. This 4% includes all the suns, planets, nebulae and black holes of the universe. This is called baryonic matter, named for the subatomic particles (baryons) everything we see is made of. The matter that we know and see makes up only 4% of the universe. Dark matter makes up another 22% of the universe. Most of this undetected energy/matter is dark energy, which makes up ~74% of the universe. These two observations imply that we cannot observe a large part of what makes up the universe. Visible Matter Makes Up Less Than 5% of the Universe Astrophysicists call this force dark energy. Instead, it seems to be a property of empty space or something that fills space that appears empty.

This expansion is not explained by the known laws of physics. As this happens, the expansion accelerates. This implies the existence of an entirely new type of particle, called “dark matter.” What this dark matter is, and how it behaves is unknown.

The math simply doesn’t work! Therefore, physicists believe there are large amounts of matter that do not behave like normal matter. Theoretical models show that there is far too little visible matter in the universe. However, rather than neatly answering our questions this research has created even more questions. Decades of research and the development of advanced technology have allowed us to get a better picture of our universe. Physicists deduced the existences of this elusive dark energy stuff from the laws of physics and our observations of the universe.

What is the dark energy