Why does the universe keep getting bigger faster?
Dark energy
Why does the universe keep getting bigger faster?
Imagine you and your friends are playing a game where you pass a ball around. At first, it moves slowly, but suddenly, it starts zooming away faster and faster, even though you're just standing still. This would be confusing and unexpected, right?
Dark energy is like an invisible force that's making the universe expand at an increasing rate, even though everything else seems to be holding steady.
Example
Just like the ball in the game suddenly zooming away faster, the universe is expanding faster due to dark energy.
Remember this
Dark energy is the mysterious force driving the universe's accelerated expansion.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Related concepts
Cold dark matter
Dark matter makes up about 27% of the universe
Cosmological constant problem
Vacuum energy predicted 10^120 times too large
Type Ia supernova
Type Ia supernovae have a consistent peak luminosity
Cosmic inflation
Cosmic inflation explains the universe's uniform temperature
Friedmann equations
Friedmann equations govern cosmic expansion in homogeneous and isotropic models
the CMB power spectrum tells us
Ever wondered why the night sky glows uniformly?
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