Talking about, and explaining dark energy has been an extremely difficult task for today’s astronomers. The problem with this is that the concept of dark energy goes far beyond our current scientific understanding.
Humans can, with some certainty, say that the dark energy does exist. We know how much of it is present in the universe and we also know how much it influences our world. What we don’t know is what it really is since we cannot see or detect it.
Considering that dark energy makes up three-quarters of the universe and is available throughout, it is assumed that it must be extremely easy for scientists to track it down. However, that is not true. It is not a tangible substance, and this makes it very difficult to observe and analyze.
The difference between dark energy and dark matter
Though they tend to have the same first names, dark energy and dark matter, are completely different things. Dark energy is a force which is responsible for increasing the pace of expansion of the universe since the Big Bang.
Meanwhile, the dark matter is responsible for binding our universe and bodies together. Though, the astronomers are not able to see dark matter they can detect it through the gravitational effects on its surroundings. Other than the gravitational effects, dark matter emits X-rays that are easily detectable.
Basically, the dark matter acts as a force to keep the universe together with the stars, galaxies, and other such space elements conjoined together, and dark energy just tries to push it all apart.
Some theorists state that what we see actually is just 4 percent of our universe, in fact, some astronomers do not even believe in dark matter. Prior to 1998, the concept of dark energy emerged when two groups of scientists co-announced in their research that the universe is expanding at a really fast pace.
This was shocking to many because at that time quite a lot of scientists believed that the universe was actually growing at a very slow rate. This discovery, then, forced the scientists to come up with a concept that could explain this phenomenon.
It was Albert Einstein who first considered the dark energy as a constant throughout the universe. Recently, the scientists launched into another investigation which lasted for four years. They went through nearly a quarter of million galaxies and then came up to the conclusion that dark energy is a reality that is out there.
Harnessing dark energy
Astronomers believe that if the power of dark energy is harnessed and inserted as fuel in a spaceship, it will travel faster than the speed of light. Scientists have started to design ships that could travel at warp speed. However, it may be time before we can actually travel a spaceship powered by dark energy as the scientists are yet to find it.
