Astrophysicists always knew that dark energy exists in much higher amounts than the usual matter we interact with every day. Our Universe’s everlasting expansion is driven by a mysterious force that even accelerates the process – it’s called dark energy, and it may not be too mysterious anymore after a new experiment.
While scientists also thought that dark energy could only be detected far away from Earth, it seems that cosmologists involved in a new study are a lot more optimistic. They believe that dark energy was even detected on our beloved planet, as Inverse.com reveals.
Dark energy found at Gran Sasso National Laboratory from Italy?
In the new study paper, scientists claim that dark energy was found in Italy during an experiment for finding dark matter, meaning another major conundrum in astrophysics.
Data from the XENON1T experiment was observed. However, Jeremy Sakstein, who is an assistant professor of theoretical physics from the University of Hawaii and also one of the authors of the paper, admitted to Inverse.com that the odds for the direct detection of dark matter are low. He adds that the scientists could be dealing with just a statistical anomaly.
Alexei Filippenko, an astronomer from the University of California, Berkeley, who wasn’t involved in the new study, declared for Inverse.com:
If it’s true, it’s a stunning discovery,
But a lot remains to be done to verify whether it’s true.
If dark energy wouldn’t exist, the Universe’s expansion caused by the Big Bang will eventually slow down and make all the matter collapse back to its starting point – the so-called “singularity”. Dark energy even accounts for roughly 68% of the Universe, which is enormous considering that the usual matter consists of less than 5% of the total mass of the Cosmos.
The new study was published in Physical Review D.