Dark matter and dark energy are two entities that have very little known about them, except that they make up about 95 percent of the universe. Even though this is a large part of the universe, it wasn’t even thought about until the 1960’s or the 1970’s. This is because of the fact that it is very hard to detect and almost impossible to see. Although it is impossible to see, we can see the effects of them both in our galaxy.
One way that we can “see” the dark matter is the movement of the Milky Way Galaxy. While studying the Milky Way, scientists noticed that the outer rings of the galaxy were moving at the same speed as the inner rings (“Dark Energy, Dark Matter”, n.d.) . This may seem normal, but, due to the law of gravity, the outer rings should be moving slower because of their distance from other stars and planets, and because of their distance from the center of the universe. This means that there has to be an outside force that is pulling on the outer ring. Scientists theorize that this is dark matter. Scientists think that there is a ring around the Milky Way that may be as much as ten times as big as the outer ring of the galaxy itself. This effect is also seen in different galaxies. Also, in clusters of galaxies, the power of gravity is a lot stronger than it’s mass should suggest. The effects of dark energy were first seen in the 1990’s when scientists were watching IA supernovae. Scientists had already figured out how to calculate the distance of Ia supernovae, and they thought they knew the distance of the supernovae, but they were off by a lot, which means that there is an energy source that is pushing the universe apart.
The Theories of Dark Matter and Dark Energy
What are there two phenomena though? There is v...
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...t approximately five billion years ago, dark energy took over. This means that the universe is separating more rapidly than it used to. From this face, there are two theories of the universe’s end; the big chill and the big rip. The Big Chill is a theory that states that the universe will slowly drift apart until all of the stars die out and the planets all freeze and heat disappears. The Big Rip is an even more bleak theory. It states that the universe will expand faster and faster, due to dark energy, until galaxies rip themselves apart. Also, this quick expansion will lead to everything from galaxies to molecules violently ripping itself apart. Out of these two theories, the Big Chill is the one that is less likely to happen. this said, weather or not the Big Rip happens or not is all based on if dark energy stays or if it disappears as quickly as it appeared.
There are still numerous possibilities and crossroads that have not been discovered but could create an energy
In the last hundred years we have made enormous progress in studying not our galaxy but ones billions of light-years away. Only a few hundred years ago our world seemed so big that there were areas of the world that had never been charted and people believed that the Earth was flat (and yes for some reason a few people still believe that today). If we continue to make progress at thus rate the universe will actually begin to seem smaller because of how much more we might know.
Two men named Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis has a debate in 1920 that is still important today for changing how we think about galaxies. They talked about five important things. The first thing they debated was how big our galaxy, the Milky Way, is. Shapley said that the Milky Way was much bigger than we first thought, 100,000 light-years across, and that, because it was that big, it had to be the only one. Curtis said the the Milky Way was smaller than that, and that other galaxies existed past ours. They were both right and both wrong. Shapley was right about the size of the Milky Way, and Curtis was right about there being many more galaxies in the universe.
However, this cannot be extrapolated indefinitely. The universe’s expansion helps us to appreciate the direction in which time flows. This is referred to as the Cosmological arrow of time, and implies that the future is -- by definition -- the direction towards which the universe increases in size. The expansion of the universe also gives rise to the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the overall entropy (or disorder) in the Universe can only increase with time because the amount of energy available for work deteriorates with time. If the universe was eternal, therefore, the amount of usable energy available for work would have already been exhausted. Hence it follows that at one point the entropy value was at absolute 0 (most ordered state at the moment of creation) and the entropy has been increasing ever since -- that is, the universe at one point was fully “wound up” and has been winding down ever since. This has profound theological implications, for it shows that time itself is necessarily finite. If the universe were eternal, the thermal energy in the universe would have been evenly distributed throughout the cosmos, leaving each region of the cosmos at uniform temperature (at very close to absolute 0), rendering no further work
Despite all our advances in particle physics and astrophysics, we still don't know what form of matter makes up 95% of the universe. Physicists have named this mysterious substance dark matter, for it can not be detected by observation (it does not emit visible or other frequency light waves). However, we know that dark matter must exist, following Newton's universal law of gravity.
Every day we look into the night sky, wondering and dreaming what lies beyond our galaxy. Within our galaxy alone, there are millions upon millions of stars. This may be why it interests us to learn about all that we cannot see. Humans have known the existence of stars since they have had eyes, and see them as white glowing specks in the sky. The mystery lies beyond the white glowing specks we see but, in the things we cannot see in the night sky such as black holes.
It is now believed that the origin of some black holes is nonstellar. Some astrophysicists suggest that immense volumes of interstellar matter can collect and collapse into supermassive black holes, such as are found at the center of some galaxies.
Energy is an odd concept, it is something that is neither here nor there yet has a profound impact on everything, both organic and inorganic. However, energy surrounds us in more ways than is commonly believed; it is possible that matter is only a form of energy. In fact, according to Albert Einstein, matter and energy are different forms of the same thing (“Do Antimatter and Matter Destroy Each Other?”). Through analyzing the superposition of bosons (particles without mass) and fermions (particles with mass), transformations between energy and matter, the creation of mass, and the mass of energy, the existence of what humans consider to be matter will be questioned.
Black holes are the result of the death of a massive star, leaving behind a dense remnant core that eventually collapses to create a gravitational force so strong that nothing, including light, can escape the force. The theory that black holes existed started back in the early 1900s and since then astronomers and scientists have been trying to get a better understanding of them. This phenomenon has been a working progress for astronomers and scientists for many years and as we develop a better understanding of our solar system, the more likely it is to make a significant discovery that can answer some of the most difficult questions about our incredible galaxy and solar system. The more information we are able to acquire about our universe, the more questions we might be able to answer about our existence. With advancements in technology we may be able to see some significant discoveries and insights into the world of black holes.
A galaxy, also called a nebula, consists of billions of stars, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter which are all bound to form a massive cloud in which we live in. Although it cannot be very well explained, dark matter makes up at least 90% of a galaxy’s mass. Galaxies also contain billions upon billions of stars and their diameter can range from 1,500 to 300,000 light years. That’s huge! The Milky Way, the galaxy in which we live in, is one of about 170 billion galaxies in the observable universe. Our Sun is one of the billions of stars in our galaxy, and our eight planets revolve around this star in only a tiny part of our galaxy. “The Earth’s solar system is believed to exist very close to the Galaxy’s galactic plane, due to the fact that the Milky Way essentially divides the night sky into two virtually equal hemispheres” ("All About the Milky"). It definitely makes people second guess the fact of there being life on other planets.
The universe, it's vastness, how it was created, and why we are a part of it amazes and astounds many people who are constantly searching for answers. Others believe they have the answers and try to persuade people to understand their view. Others don't even think about it at all.
The Universe is a collection of millions of galaxies and extends beyond human imagination. After the big bang, the universe was found to be composed of radiation and subatomic particles. Information following big bang is arguable on how galaxies formed, that is whether small particles merged to form clusters and eventually galaxies or whether the universe systematized as immense clumps of matter that later fragmented into galaxies (Nasa World book, 2013). A galaxy is a massive area of empty space full of dust, gases (mainly 75% Hydrogen and 25%Helium), atoms, about 100-200 billion stars, interstellar clouds and planets, attracted to the center by gravitational force of attraction. Based on recent research, 170 billion galaxies have been estimated to exist, with only tens of thousands been discovered (Deutsch, 2011).
The big bang theory is an attempt to explain how the world began. The big bang theory begins with what is called a “singularity.” This term is used to describe an area in space which defies all the known laws of physics. Singularities are thought to exist at the core of black holes. Black holes are areas of intense gravitational pressure. The pressure is thought to be so intense that matter is pressed together into an infinite amount of pressure. The dense hot mass of the singularity slowly expanded. This process is called inflation. As the singularity expanded the universe went from dense and hot to cool and expansive. Inflation is still continuing on today which means that the universe is continually expanding.
This is probably the greatest discovery imaginable; however, the universe still seems to be a very controversial subject.
Black holes are one of the many amazing unexplainable wonders around the world. Black holes are also very abundant in many galaxies especially the Milky Way. There is believed to be at least over ten million black holes scattered around the Milky Way galaxy alone. In every galaxy there is a supermassive black hole that is at least billions of times as big as the sun and it is big enough to swallow the whole solar system.