There are many unknown things about our universe, but one of the most talked about topics is dark matter and dark energy. Although we may not know a lot about the actual matter and energy, we do know that it affects many other things in our universe. Since it has such a tremendous effect on so many things of the universe, there has been a mad dash to figure it out. In a result of this, many different theories have been made; we do not know which is correct. To truly understand the complicated concept of dark matter, one must explore the different possibilities and look for the most probable choice.

Although there are two major components to this big question, in order to understand dark energy, you have to be able to understand dark matter. Dark matter is a type of matter that is not visible to the human eye because it is “dark”; this means that it is not “light” like planets and stars. The reason we have such a hard time figuring anything out about it is because we have a very difficult time even detecting it. Since it is not normal, light matter, it doesn’t give off radiation or light, nor does it absorb light from neighboring galaxies. This makes it nearly impossible to detect with our telescopes unless it interacts with other matter. Dark matter does not usually interact with anything, which has been leading some scientists to think it is made out of neutrinos – a small particle, somewhat like an atom, that doesn’t have any mass – since they are very reluctant to react with any type of matter. Neutrinos are produced frequently by fusion, which would mean there would be many of them in our galaxy, implying that dark matter would be all over our galaxy. According to some research, it takes up nearly 25% of our galaxy!

Since we know so little about dark matter, dark energy is even harder to understand. It is also dark, so it cannot be viewed by the human eye. But this means that there is also a lot of it roaming around our universe that we don’t even know about. According to research, dark energy takes up approximately 70% of the universe; if you add the 25% from the dark matter, there is only 5% left for everything else, including our planets, the stars and all other visible matter and energy. There is a lot of this dark energy, so when you learn that it is affecting the expansion of the universe, you shouldn’t be too surprised. We aren’t exactly sure how, but it is does have a large effect on the expansion of the universe; it has been speeding up. Since we are so thirsty for knowledge about this new subject, scientists have been coming up with many different theories about the expansion and what it will end up like.

One of the three theories that scientists have come up with deals with a statement that Albert Einstein made long ago: empty space isn’t just nothing. He believed that empty space had its own energy, that would result in dark energy being created. The energy would just keep appearing, continually expanding the universe. Since we know for sure that the universe is expanding at the moment, and doing so rapidly, this theory would make sense, but there is still much to figure out about it.

The second theory that scientists have come upon while researching has to do with dynamical energy. Dynamical energy is a fluid or field that fills space; its effect on the expansion of the universe is different than normal energy and matter, this is why we know so little about it. Quintessence, as some scientists call this theory, would mean that space is filled with dark matter and dark energy, each rapidly speeding up the expansion of the universe. We also do not have the type of equipment or knowledge to know more about this theory right now, so there are still many unanswered questionsThe last, but definitely not the least, theory says that Einstein’s theory of gravity is not correct. If this were true, everything we thought we knew about the expansion of the universe and movement of regular matter would be forever changed. We would have to study other galaxies to find the solution of dark matter. This would mean that we would need a new gravity theory, resulting in many problems and questions for scientists. They would have to start over and re-do all of their research, right from the start.

With all of this research in mind, it is hard to grasp the actual meaning of dark matter and how much it affects the universe as a whole. Getting the information is a good start though, even if it is too much to understand at once; if you get past the research, you can go on to chose the one you believe and get to know it better. For me, the dynamical energy theory seems to be the most accurate – we know the most about it, and how it affects the expansion of the universe. Now that I understand how that theory works, I can get started on finding out about more facts on dark matter and energy.