The Mysteries of Space: Dark Energy

      While scientists today know a lot about our own world, they still don't fully understand the mysteries of space.  Dark energy is a force that makes up approximately 70% of the matter in our universe . . . However, due to it's obscure nature, scientists only know a bit about it.
      If you imagine galaxies as bright baseballs, the Big Bang would have flung them outward billions of years ago.  That is why the universe is expanding.  Now, scientists are faced with another query -- Will this process reverse or just keep going?  In order to figure this out, two teams of astronomers observed the galaxies that were farther out.  The past can be told from distant galaxies.  The farther the galaxies are, the farther you look into the past.  If the more remote galaxies are moving more quickly than the closer ones, then the rate of expansion is already slowing down.  The scientists found that the universe is actually expanding faster than it was before!  Consequently, it can be said that this rate will most probably keep increasing unless a greater force stops it.

      The mysterious source that results in a greatly expanding universe is called dark energy.  Dark energy is an elusive force; scientists don't know much aout it at all.  While its counterpart, dark matter, works to bring all the objects in space together, dark energy works against it.  Dark energy pulls objects apart at a far faster rate than dark matter can repel the force.  This is also due to the fact that there is much less dark matter in the world than there is dark energy.  When we think about dark energy, we don't think about it as too threatening.  It doesn't seem that way, does it?  However, if the expansion of the universe continues as it it is now, many distressing ramifications may come our way.
      Firstly, as the universe expands, the distance between individual planets and other astronomical objects becomes greater.  Thus, it would become even harder for us to reach other places in the wondrous vacuum of space and make life-changing discoveries.  This would prevent findings that could cure diseases or of new types of life on other planets.  Furthermore, and even more disturbingly, dark energy could cause individual cells to separate, which would be extremely detrimental to our livelihood.  Of course, this would happen very slowly, and would take tens of billions of years.  Dark energy would first distance galaxies, then solar systems, and then even separate planets.  Moreover, it could go on to separate the components of a planet such as our own.  Earth could be completely destroyed by dark energy.  Even if we managed to survive Earth's destruction, soon, we would be the ones being taken apart, cell by cell.  Although this is definitely an exaggerated account of what may very well happen if dark energy continues on its path, it defines the way dark energy works.
      The discovery and proof of dark energy in our universe is a major turning point for scientists everywhere.  We can learn a great amount by observing the effects of dark energy and how it can change the way we live.  Once we understand how the universe works, much more can be learned as well.

        I obtained my information from this article in TIME Magazine and a few episodes of Through the Wormhole, a series on the Science Channel.  My first picture came from here.  My second photograph can be found here.

~ Starflower794!!!