Dark Energy and the Connection With the Big Bang Theory

With the development of astronomy in recent years, scientists have discovered many interesting things about our universe. Chief among them is the fact that the universe is expanding at a constantly-accelerating rate. At first, this theory seems to violate the laws of physics. After all, how can something continue to expand after all these billions of years? Things have started to make a little bit more sense with the introduction of "dark energy" into the cosmic stew. It has given more credence to the Big Bang theory and is today the most popular theory to explain the universe's expansion. Below are a few of the theories to accompany the theory of dark matter.

Dark energy makes up most of the universe's density

Another discovery by modern astronomers is that the universe is essentially flat. In order to retain this shape, it needs to posses what's called a "critical mass". Scientists can measure the amount of regular matter in the universe. That only comes out to about 4% of the critical mass, however, so there has got to be more out there. If scientists add the hypothesized amount of dark matter to the calculation, the result goes up substantially. But even then, it is not enough. Together, regular and dark matter comprise about 26% of the critical mass needed to give the universe its shape. By order of elimination, this dark energy has to make up at least 74% of the universe's density.

Dark energy possesses Incredible negative pressure

If the universal expansion theory conforms to the observations, dark energy needs to have an enormous negative pressure in order to work. This is the energy that is said to serve as the main driving force behind the universe's expansion.

With the addition of dark energy to the universe's roster of particles, the Big Bang theory as well as the universe's continued expansion begin to make more sense. If this energy does indeed exist, the next question is: How long will it keep expanding?