Why do cosmologists think dark energy exists?
Question asked by: knowitall
Dark energy is believed in because it can explain the world around us.
Broadly, recent observations of the universe have suggested that - contrary to all expectations - the universe is actually expanding at increasing speed - galaxies are moving further away from each other at greater and greater speeds.
This was a great surprise as it was thought the universe might be slowing down in growth and may even one day contract, or simply steadily drift.
The expansion had to be explained, as it meant that there is something pushing the stars apart, and that could not be explained through normal matter and dark matter.
Therefore the energy that pushes the galaxies apart, which could be thought of as a kind of anti-gravity force, is called dark energy.
Strangely enough this would not seem to have to make up a massive 75% of the universe.
The impact is that, far from understanding the universe, we are now only familiar with some 4% of the matter in the universe if dark matter and dark energy are correct!
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