Dark energy
From PhiloWiki
Is "dark energy" real? How is the fact that the expansion of the universe is accelerating explained?
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Christian views
- Resources are needed. Feel free to find and add resources.
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Secular views
- "Recent evidence shows that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. Furthermore, the data strongly suggest that an unidentified form of energy is the cause of the accelerating expansion. This "dark energy" has been deemed perhaps "the most fundamentally mysterious thing in basic science." Light from distant exploding stars carries telltale clues that can resolve this enigma.
- In the very dense early universe, when matter was close together, gravitational attraction was strong and expansion was slowing. Today, because of continued expansion, matter is farther apart and the density of the universe is low - so low that it has apparently dropped below the density of some unidentified dark energy now causing it to expand ever faster.
- The dark energy may be what Albert Einstein called the "cosmological constant," an arbitrary term he added to the general theory of relativity to make sure it described a static universe. Although Einstein later abandoned the idea, evidence for an accelerating universe has forced cosmologists to consider the existence of a cosmological constant once again.
- "It used to be clear that gravity was an attraction between bodies, and that, on Earth, makes an apple fall to the ground. But cosmologists now suspect that, on the scale of the universe, gravity, propelled by something they call dark energy, behaves just the opposite...
- One of the most bizarre features is that as the universe expands, it creates more dark energy that pushes the expansion to warp speeds. "If dark energy really is 70 percent of the whole universe and it behaves the way current theory predicts, then it really is beginning to dominate everything about the universe," said Tony Stark of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "It will actually turn off the formation of galaxies. From now on there will be very many fewer galaxy clusters formed." However, the observable facts did not say so. After so many years, the forming of new galaxies is still very active...
- Dark energy is different from another cosmological mystery, dark matter."
