The universe is a strange position : just 5 % of the mass of everything that exists is made up of steady matter . The respite is made up of 25 % dark topic and 70 % dark vim . coloured matter is already a mysterious phenomenon , being made of presumably subatomic particle that do n’t interact with brightness , but dark free energy is perhaps even more enigmatic . Scientists know that it must exist , but it go along arrive stranger .
blue energy must exist because we can see the fashion that it impact the expanding upon of the universe . We know that the universe of discourse is boom , and that this expansion is quicken up over clip , based on measurements of aloof object with a fixed and known light . Dark energy is the theoretical force that is driving this expansion faster .
However , there are some wrinkle in this theory to be sour out . One weird determination is that the power glum energy has exerted on the universe over time seems to have commute , as it appeared to have more of an result in the former world than it does now — but many people arrogate this was some kind of misplay in the measurements , as theory of dark energy generally suggest it should be constant through time .
Now , though , new evidence from a three - twelvemonth project called the Dark Energy Survey suggests that dark vim really is commute over prison term ; a finding which could upend the current strong-arm models of the universe .
The undertaking used data from a special instrument called theDark Energy Camera , go up on the Víctor M. Blanco 4 - beat Telescope in Chile , and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument ( DESI ) , mounted on the Nicholas U. Mayall 4 - cadence Telescope in Arizona . A coalition of hundreds of researcher from around the world work on the data , including make a 3D mapping of the cosmos that demonstrate the structure create by gravity — seen above .
The findings suggest that dingy energy is dynamic and changes over time , and that it used to be stronger in the other stage of the creation but is weaker now . That ’s particularly odd because most models view moody DOE to be a fixed force , like to gravity . But perhaps that is n’t the eccentric .
“ This result is challenging because it hints at physics beyond the standard model of cosmogeny , ” say Juan Mena - Fernández of the Subatomic Physics and Cosmology Laboratory in Grenoble , France . “ If further data stand these finding , we may be on the threshold of a scientific rotation . ”
scientist are n’t quite ready to throw out the book of stock cosmogony just yet , but using tools like DESI which can gather light from thousands of distant galaxies simultaneously , they are refining their agreement of grim energy over time . More information and more theoretic piece of work will help oneself complicate the savvy of this foreign force .
“ Our results are fertile ground for our hypothesis colleagues as they front at new and existing good example , and we ’re worked up to see what they derive up with , ” said Michael Levi , DESI director and a scientist at Berkeley Lab . “ Whatever the nature of dark energy is , it will shape the future of our Universe . It ’s passably noteworthy that we can look up at the sky with our telescopes and taste to answer one of the biggest doubtfulness that humanity has ever asked . ”
