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How Much Do We Know About Dark Matter & Energy? Not Much.
How Much Do We Know About Dark Matter & Energy? Not Much.
By Colin
As strange as it might sound, the major force in our universe that is making it continue to accelerate apart is something we really don't know much about. It's estimated that dark energy is responsible for around 70% of the energy in our universe and dark matter is about 25% of the universe but it is invisible. That means that all the stuff we can see in the universe is only about 5% of what is out there. Dark matter and energy are responsible for what has happened to our universe in the past and what will happen to it in the future, yet we have never been able to observe them or figure out exactly what they are.
Euclid is a mission by the European Space Agency along with help form NASA to explore what dark matter and energy might be. It has passed the design reviews and is scheduled to launch in 2022.
Scientists want Euclid to look at very dark areas of the sky where it is likely that dark energy and matter will be concentrated. They call these areas "Deep Fields." Euclid will look at the evolution of the universe and how galaxies cluster together and also the distortion of images of galaxies to see if they can see dark matter intervening between the distant galaxies and us.Euclid will also survey 1/3 of the sky as well as those deep fields.
Euclid began being assembled in December of 2018. Hopefully Euclid will help scientists answer some of the difficult questions about dark matter and energy and we will have a much better understanding of these in the future, because they are really confusing right now.
Resources: Euclid, Euclid Dark Energy Telescope Selects Deep Fields, NASA Delivers Detectors for ESA's Euclid Spacecraft, esa euclid, Euclid: exploring the dark matter, Euclid Consortium
Image credit: JPL, ESA/C. Carreau
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