Physics & Math, features and articles | Educational Science

Apr 12, 2012

Distant Galaxies Confirm Accelerating Growth of Universe, Dark Energy

The pesky reality that the universe's expansion is accelerating — an observation that prompted astronomers to invoke an unknown entity called dark energy to explain it — has been further confirmed by new measurements. Scientists have used cosmic magnifying glasses called gravitational lenses to observe super-bright distant galaxies, giving a...

Sep 12, 2012

Elusive Dark Energy Is Real, Study Says

Dark energy, the mysterious substance thought to be accelerating the expansion of the universe, almost certainly exists despite some astronomers' doubts, a new study says. After a two-year study, an international team of researchers concludes that the probability of dark energy being real stands at 99.996 percent. But the scientists...

Sep 19, 2012

New Dark Energy Telescope Snaps First Cosmic Photos

A new telescope camera in Chile focused on mysterious dark energy has taken its first photos of extremely distant galaxies. The images represent the first observations — called first light — of an instrument called the Dark Energy Camera that was eight years in the works. The achievement of first...

Jan 25, 2013

NASA Joins European Dark Energy Mission

NASA has officially joined the European Space Agency's Euclid mission, a space telescope that will launch in 2020 to study the mysterious dark matter and dark energy pervading the universe. NASA will contribute 16 infrared detectors and four spares for one of the Euclid telescope's two planned science instruments, agency...

Feb 5, 2013

Dark Energy Hunter: 7 Questions for Nobel Prize Winner Saul Perlmutter

Dark energy is still mystifying, even to those that first discovered it. Saul Perlmutter, an astrophysicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, won the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics for helping reveal that the expansion of the universe was accelerating (he shared the prize with Brian Schmidt of the...

Jun 5, 2013

Donated Spy Satellite Telescope Would Suit NASA Dark Energy Mission, Report Finds

INDIANAPOLIS — NASA could use a donated spy satellite telescope to carry out a high-priority mission that would hunt for alien planets and mysterious dark energy, a new report found. Not only would one of two donated U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) telescopes suit the mission of NASA's proposed Wide-Field...

Mar 27, 2014

Does Dark Energy Spring From the 'Quantum Vacuum?'

The mysterious dark energy that's driving the universe's accelerated expansion may have its roots in the background vacuum energy that pervades all of the cosmos, a new study suggests. What we think is happening is a dynamic effect of the quantum vacuum, a parameter that we can calculate, co-author Joan...

May 26, 2017

Dark Energy May Lurk in the Nothingness of Space

A new study may help reveal the nature of dark energy, the mysterious substance that is pushing the universe to expand outward. Dark energy may emerge from fluctuations in the nothingness of empty space, a new hypothesis suggests. That idea, in turn, could also explain why the cosmological constant, a...

Jun 26, 2018

Aliens May Be Rearranging Stars to Fight Dark Energy, Awesome Study Suggests

How to dominate the universe in three easy steps … Step 1: Harvest all of your planet's resources. Step 2: Harvest all of your nearest star's energy. Step 3: Harvest all the energy from all the stars in your local galaxy; then move on to another galaxy. Congratulations! Your species...

Jan 30, 2019

Dark Energy Gets Weirder: Mysterious Force May Vary Over Time

Scientists first proposed the existence of this invisible force two decades ago, to explain the surprising discovery that the universe's expansion is accelerating. (Surprising and incredibly important; the find netted three researchers the Nobel Prize in physics in 2011.) The most-used astrophysical model of the universe's structure and evolution regards...

Jul 3, 2019

Exotic 'Early Dark Energy' Could Be the Missing Link That Explains the Universe's Expansion

There may be an exotic form of dark energy lurking in the universe, and it could explain a stubborn discrepancy in measurements of the universe's expansion rate. This so-called early dark energy might have existed in the universe’s infancy, then flickered out of existence soon after. That, in turn, would...

Jul 12, 2019

New Dark Energy Data Emerges from Misshapen, Distorted, Ancient Voids

There are voids in the universe, and we can't see them properly. And that's a good thing. These voids — giant, irregular gaps in space that are empty of galaxies — are all over the cosmos. But, because they are empty, astronomers can't directly observe them. Instead, they spot them...

Oct 30, 2019

5,000 Mini-Eyes Just Blinked Open to Scan the Skies for Dark Energy

Thousands of tiny eyes just blinked open and will soon scan 35 million galaxies for evidence of dark energy. These 5,000 mini-telescopes make up the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), which was installed on the Mayall Telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. Astronomers recently completed the first...

Jan 10, 2020

Dark Energy Is Real, Despite Claim to the Contrary

A new study suggests that dark energy might not be real after all. But other scientists have found major flaws with this bold claim. Dark energy is a mysterious and hypothetical form of energy that is used to explain the accelerating expansion of our universe. One way that scientists have...

Jan 5, 2021

Is there more than one dark energy?

Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute, host of Ask a Spaceman and Space Radio, and author of How to Die in Space. He contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Opinions and Insights. We don't know what's behind dark energy, the name...