Dark Energy, features and articles | Educational Science

Aug 13, 2010

New Telescope Would Search Planets, Probe Dark Energy

A $1.6-billion space telescope that could reveal the nature of dark energy and identify Earth-like planets should be the top priority for astronomers and astrophysicists, according to a long-awaited report that lays out the pressing needs for the next 10 years of space science. The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST)...

Aug 19, 2010

Dark Energy Mystery Illuminated By Cosmic Lens

By peering at the distant reaches of the universe through a galactic magnifying lens, astronomers may have found a way to better understand mysterious dark energy, which is thought to be speeding up the expansion of the cosmos. Though scientists don't know what dark energy is — nor have they...

Nov 12, 2010

Chubby Galaxy Cluster Suggests Dark Energy Stronger Long Ago

Astronomers have created a new, incredibly detailed map of dark matter by using the Hubble Space Telescope to peer through a huge cluster of galaxies as if it were a cosmic magnifying glass. Though invisible, dark matter makes its presence known through its gravitational tug on normal stuff. Scientists now...

Jan 11, 2011

Quest for Dark Energy Grows Brighter with Special Camera

A special camera on a South American telescope aims to search for elusive dark energy, a force that may be pulling the universe apart at the seams. The so-called Dark Energy Survey, using a 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera that will be mounted on the 4-meter (158-inch) telescope at the National...

Mar 15, 2011

Bizarre Dark Energy Theory Gets Boost From New Measurements

New measurements of the expansion rate of the universe lend new support for the theory of dark energy that suggests a mysterious force is pulling the cosmos apart at ever-increasing speeds. Scientists have few ideas why such a force would exist, but the evidence for dark energy – which like...

Oct 5, 2011

European Space Missions Target the Sun, Dark Energy

Europe's next two space science missions will investigate solar activity and the nature of the mysterious dark energy that is accelerating the universe's expansion, European Space Agency (ESA) officials announced today (Oct. 4). The two missions, called Solar Orbiter and Euclid, are due to launch in 2017 and 2019, respectively....

Dec 8, 2011

Nobel Winners Keep Eyes on the Real Prize: Solving Dark Energy Riddle

The three scientists who won this year's Nobel Prize in physics are certainly not resting on their laurels. The trio of astrophysicists will receive their prizes at a ceremony in Stockholm on Saturday (Dec. 10) for the groundbreaking discovery of the accelerated expansion of the universe. But the researchers are...

Apr 2, 2012

New Map of Distant Galaxies May Reveal Dark Energy History

Dark energy, the weird force blamed for propelling the universe to expand at an accelerated speed, probably turned on between 5 and 7 billion years ago, scientists think. Now astronomers have mapped thousands of galaxies from this era, and have determined the most precise distances to them yet, in an...

Apr 3, 2012

Dark Energy Search Needs Research Funding Boost, Nobel Winners Say

ATLANTA — Solving the cosmic riddle of dark energy will require scientific creativity and funding for fundamental research, Nobel Prize-winning scientists said Monday (April 2). In this era of tightening budgets and an emphasis on how science can help society, it's important to invest in basic research that doesn't have...

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...