1. Alex H
Dark Matter And Dark Energy
Dark matter and dark energy, they sound like something from a sci-fi movie don’t they? They are
for real for sure, they are theories about what the universe is made up of. Dark matter is simply material
that we know is out there, we just can’t see it. Dark matter is believed to contain no atoms and is
believed to not interact with mater via electromagnetic forces. So in a nutshell, we can’t see it but we
know it’s out there, it takes up around 90% of our universe and it has no atoms. Kind of impractical I
think. Dark energy is believed to be the force that is expanding our universe. Dark energy is believed to
be about 74% of our universe while stars and planets take up only 0.4% of our universe so there is a
whole lot of dark matter and dark energy in our universe. What exactly is dark matter and dark energy?
Let’s find out!
What is dark matter? That’s a good place to start, dark matter is matter that cannot be picked
up by the radiation that it emits but can be detected by its gravitational effect on normal matter. It is
believed to play a key role in the forming of galaxies. Dark matter for the most part isn’t only “dark” but
it is also transparent. There are believed to be three different types of dark matter, Hot Dark Matter
(HDM) Warm Dark Matter (WDM) and Cold Dark Matter (CDM). Remember all of this is just a theory
there is no absolute proof of dark matter. The reason the dark matter theory was put out was because
using calculations scientists were able to figure out an approximant size of the universe, but when they
went to look at it they were missing 90% of what they calculated. That is why dark matter is believed to
be undetectable by the radiation it gives off. There are other theories of what that missing 90% may be
but the dark matter theory is the by far the most popular theory out there.
On to dark energy, dark energy is believed to flow throughout the universe freely and is believed
to be the cause of cosmic inflation. Cosmic inflation is simply the fact that the universe is expanding. It is
believed that dark energy accounts for 74% of the universe which would explain why we are increasing
in size so rapidly. There are basically two proposed types of dark energy, remember now that these are
just proposed types and the whole dark energy concept is just a theory. The two types of dark energy
are cosmological constant which states that the universe is covered with a constant amount of dark
energy meaning that wherever you go in the universe there is the same amount of dark energy. The
other proposed type of dark energy is known as scalar fields. Scalar fields simply state that the amount
of dark energy varies depending on where you are in space and in time. In my opinion I think that scalar
fields are the most likely type of dark energy, think about it. Do you really think that dark energy stays
the exact no matter where you are or what point in time it is? I find that a little hard to believe.
2. Alex H
In conclusion, dark matter and dark energy may sound like something from a sci-fi movie but in
fact they are believed to build up around 90% of our universe. Dark matter is simply the amount of
matter that we can’t pick up with the radiation it emits but when we use equations we know it must be
there. We can also observe it effecting normal matter, so although we can’t see it something must be
there and although only a theory, dark energy and dark matter really explain a lot about our universe.
