The Dark Universe
BOOK III: The Enigmatic Mystery – Consideration #188
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Tuesday May 13, 2025
“In terms of the most astonishing fact about which we know nothing, there is dark matter and dark energy. We don't know what either of them is. Everything we know and love about the universe and all the laws of physics as they apply, apply to four percent of the universe. That's stunning.”
– Neil deGrasse Tyson
PREFACE
Welcome Everybody!
One of the most shocking revelations of modern science is that the universe we have spent so much time and energy trying to understand is really just a tiny fraction of reality. What we think of as the universe, space, atoms, matter, light; all of it represents less than 5% of the “real” universe. Science knows essentially nothing about the other 95% which we do not see, or perceive, except that it is composed not of light, but of darkness. Dark Matter and Dark Energy represent the newest mysteries in our scientific universe.
CONSIDERATION #188 – The Dark Universe
“You're entitled to say, if you're so smart, why don't you tell me what that dark matter is? And I'll have to confess I don't know.”
– Jim Peebles
Scientists now estimate that approximately 27% of the universe is made up of something called “Dark Matter.” Although we cannot see dark matter, its influence can be directly observed. It turns out that if we add up all the matter in the visible universe it would not have enough mass to produce the gravity necessary to hold galaxies together.
Surprisingly, scientists now propose that a mysterious dark form of matter with its own gravitational force fills in the missing pieces of the equation. Dark Matter produces an attractive force (gravity) that “pulls” matter inward, acting like a kind of cosmic glue that holds the galaxies together.
“Astronomer Fritz Zwicky discovered the substance in 1933, according to Britannica, when he observed that visible matter didn’t provide nearly enough mass to keep the stars from flying off into space. Astronomers have since observed this effect in other galaxies, as well as clusters of galaxies. Calculations now show that a vast ‘halo’ of a dark substance surrounds the Milky Way. This halo may be 10 times as massive as the bright disk, so it exerts a strong gravitational pull.”
– Kelly McSweeney, Dark Energy vs. Dark Matter: What’s the Difference?
Although there is no direct verifiable proof of dark matter, only observational data, scientists are already speculating on what it might be and what that may mean. However, they tend to have a firmer grasp on what dark matter is not, as opposed to what it actually is. Scientists propose that dark matter is not visible matter, dark clouds of normal matter called baryonic clouds, antimatter, or large galaxy-sized black holes.
Many scientists are now suggesting that dark matter is made up of dense astronomical bodies known as Massive Astrophysical Compact Halo Objects called MACHOs or perhaps Weakly Interacting Massive Particles called WIMPs. Others argue that dark matter may be composed of sub-atomic particles we have not yet discovered. However, some are using string theory to promote even more interesting possibilities.
“However, one new theory says that dark matter may be ordinary matter in a parallel universe. If a galaxy is hovering above in another dimension, we would not be able to see it. It would be invisible, yet we would feel its gravity. Hence, it might explain dark matter.”
– Michio Kaku
At this time, what exactly dark matter is, or why it exists, remains a mystery. An even greater mystery, however, is Dark Energy.
POSTSCRIPT
“We've known for a long time that the universe is expanding. But about 15 years ago, my colleagues and I discovered that it is expanding faster and faster. That is, the universe is accelerating, and that was not expected, but it is now attributed to this mysterious stuff called dark energy which seems to make up about 70 percent of the universe.”
– Adam Riess
As much as scientists don’t know about Dark Matter, they know even less about Dark Energy.
“Scientists have some ideas about what dark matter might be—exotic and still hypothetical particles—but they have hardly a clue about dark energy. In 2003, the National Research Council listed ‘What Is the Nature of Dark Energy?’ as one of the most pressing scientific problems of the coming decades. The head of the committee that wrote the report, University of Chicago cosmologist Michael S. Turner, goes further and ranks dark energy as ‘the most profound mystery in all of science.’”
– Richard Panek, Dark Energy: The Biggest Mystery in the Universe
Dark Energy was “discovered” when scientists measuring the expansion of the universe were shocked to find that the expansion was speeding up when it should have been slowing down. The only explanation possible was the existence of a previously unknown property of space they called “Dark Energy.”
“Throughout the 1990s the rival teams closely analyzed a number of exploding stars, or supernovas, using those unusually bright, short-lived distant objects to gauge the universe’s growth. They knew how bright the supernovas should appear at different points across the universe if the rate of expansion were uniform. By comparing how much brighter the supernovas actually did appear, astronomers figured they could determine how much the expansion of the universe was slowing down. But to the astronomers’ surprise, when they looked as far as halfway across the universe, six or seven billion light-years away, they found that the supernovas weren’t brighter—and therefore nearer—than expected. They were dimmer—that is, more distant. The two teams both concluded that the expansion of the universe isn’t slowing down. It’s speeding up.
The implication of that discovery was momentous: it meant that the dominant force in the evolution of the universe isn’t gravity. It is...something else. Both teams announced their findings in 1998. Turner gave the ‘something’ a nickname: dark energy. It stuck. Since then, astronomers have pursued the mystery of dark energy to the ends of the Earth—literally.”
– Richard Panek, Dark Energy: The Biggest Mystery in the Universe
Unlike dark matter, which acts as a force of gravity to “pull” matter together, Dark Energy functions as a kind of “anti-gravity” that pushes matter apart. This “pushing” force is responsible for speeding up the expansion of the universe.
“In short, dark matter slows down the expansion of the universe, while dark energy speeds it up.
Dark matter works like an attractive force — a kind of cosmic cement that holds our universe together. This is because dark matter does interact with gravity, but it doesn’t reflect, absorb, or emit light. Meanwhile, dark energy is a repulsive force — a sort of anti-gravity — that drives the universe’s ever-accelerating expansion.
Dark energy is the far more dominant force of the two, accounting for roughly 68 percent of the universe’s total mass and energy.”
– Eric Betz, What’s the Difference Between Dark Mater and Dark Energy?
According to NASA, there are several possible theories as to what dark energy might be. First, it may be an inherent property of space we are just discovering. Contrary to popular understanding, space is not empty; space is not “nothingness.” Some are suggesting that dark energy is the unknown force behind Einstein’s original “cosmic constant” that he later regretted and recanted.
“Space is often seen as the ultimate symbol of nothingness, but in reality, space isn’t empty at all. It’s just full of dark things and dark forces that we don’t understand yet.”
– Kelly McSweeney, Dark Energy vs. Dark Matter: What’s the Difference?
Quantum theory proposes that “empty space” is actually comprised of temporary “virtual” particles that perpetually form bonds and then simply disappear. Another option suggests that dark energy is a kind of dynamic energy fluid or field, which they have termed “quintessence,” of which virtually nothing is currently known. Finally, it is possible that Einstein’s theory of gravity is wrong, and that’s why we don’t understand dark energy or how it fits into the universe. However, at this point, dark matter and dark energy remain a mystery of science.
Next week we will consider the theological mystery related to the accountability of sin…
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