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Dark Energy
A mysterious form of energy that is responsible for the increasing rate of the expansion of the Universe. Dark energy accounts for 73% of the total mass in the Universe.
Dark energy is a hypothetical energy form that permeates all space, and has negative pressure so that works as virtually an ‘anti-gravity’. The term ‘dark energy’ was invented by a cosmologist, Michael Turner, to explain the result of the distant supernova observation in 1998 which at the time startled physicists, as it indicated an accelerated expansion of the Universe, contrary to what they expected. The concept is also consistent with the flat shape of the Universe observed by the Cosmic Microwave Background Explorer. There are various theories to explain dark energy, and the most popular among physicists is the ‘cosmological constant’ theory, which was originally postulated by Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity and now adopted to refer to the ‘vacuum energy’.
Dark energy is a hypothetical energy form that permeates all space, and has negative pressure so that works as virtually an ‘anti-gravity’. The term ‘dark energy’ was invented by a cosmologist, Michael Turner, to explain the result of the distant supernova observation in 1998 which at the time startled physicists, as it indicated an accelerated expansion of the Universe, contrary to what they expected. The concept is also consistent with the flat shape of the Universe observed by the Cosmic Microwave Background Explorer. There are various theories to explain dark energy, and the most popular among physicists is the ‘cosmological constant’ theory, which was originally postulated by Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity and now adopted to refer to the ‘vacuum energy’.
