Mysterious force's long presence

[FLO]

Dark energy - the mysterious force that is speeding up the expansion of the Universe - has been a part of space for at least nine billion years.

That is the conclusion of astronomers who presented results from a three-year study using the Hubble Space Telescope.

The finding may rule out some competing theories that predict the strength of dark energy changes over time.

Dark energy makes up about 70% of the Universe; the rest is dark matter (25%) and normal matter (5%).

"Understanding the nature of dark energy is arguably the biggest problem physics is facing today" Mario Livio, Space Telescope Science Institute.

"It appears this dark energy was already boosting the expansion of the Universe as much as nine billion years ago," said co-investigator Adam Riess from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, US.

"That's out of a Universe which we think is about 13.7 billion years old - most of the way back."

The findings are consistent with the idea of dark energy behaving like Albert Einstein's cosmological constant. The cosmological constant describes the idea that there is a density and pressure associated with "empty" space.

In this scenario, dark energy never changes; it has the same properties across the age of the Universe.

Source: BBC News

http://tinyurl.com/yemvkg

[The Warthog]

I somehow have a feeling that 'dark' energy and matter are going to be this century's phlogiston. (q.v.)

[NeutrinoWave]

What would be even more exciting is when Scientists can learn to tap the potential from this dark energy in the same way they tap into other natural sources such as

Hydrothermal, Solar, Wind , Ocean Currents etc

but this is looking way into the futue when the necessity arises, as currently we are living on borrowed time with the fossil fuels ...

Also we need to learn how to tap into Gravity\AntiGravity to create our very own Gravity Assisted Flying Machines