
Indeed the Mysterious Universe
Dark Matter and Dark Energy
95% is the percentage of matter and energy in the Universe that is currently unobservable.
Matter and energy are the two basic components of the entire Universe. An enormous challenge for scientists is that most of the matter in the Universe is invisible and the source of most of the energy is not understood.
Modern calculations say dark matter comprises about 26% of the Universe. We don’t yet know what it is, but we are searching for answers.
We have known that the Universe is expanding since the early 20th century. But recent observations of distant supernovae and other observations show that the Universe is not only expanding, but the expansion is accelerating. This astonishing discovery came as a complete surprise because the expansion of the Universe should slow down with time because of the gravitational attraction between galaxies and clusters of galaxies. The unseen repellant force required to explain this observation has been labelled “dark energy,” and current models say it makes up about 69% of the Universe. That leaves only 5% of the Universe that is visible to us.
Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
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