We care about your data, and we'd like to use cookies to give you a smooth browsing experience. Please agree and read more about our privacy policy.
Quanta Homepage
  • Physics
  • Mathematics
  • Biology
  • Computer Science
  • Topics
  • Archive

What's up in

dark energy

Latest Articles

An image of space with lines emanating from a central point, as if the viewer is traveling at warp speed.
Abstractions blog

What Might Be Speeding Up the Universe’s Expansion?

By Thomas Lewton
April 27, 2020
Comment
Read Later

Physicists have proposed extra cosmic ingredients that could explain the faster-than-expected expansion of space.

Gif of a spinning sphere that has a dappled blue, green and red pattern.
Abstractions blog

How Ancient Light Reveals the Universe’s Contents

By Charlie Wood
January 28, 2020
Comment
Read Later

A photograph of the infant cosmos reveals the precise amounts of dark matter and dark energy in the universe, leaving precious little room for argument.

Supernova in galaxy NGC 5584.
Abstractions blog

No Dark Energy? No Chance, Cosmologists Contend

By Natalie Wolchover
December 17, 2019
Comment
Read Later

A study challenged the evidence for the mysterious antigravitational force known as dark energy. Then cosmologists shot back.

Illustration of three flat sheets, connoting a flat universe, and three balls, connoting a closed universe.
Abstractions blog

What Shape Is the Universe? A New Study Suggests We’ve Got It All Wrong

By Natalie Wolchover
November 4, 2019
Comment
Read Later

Most every cosmologist believes the universe is flat. A new analysis argues that it’s closed.

An illustration of a planet in front of a star.
Abstractions blog

Physics Nobel Honors Early Universe and Exoplanet Discoveries

By Michael Moyer +1 authors
Natalie Wolchover
October 8, 2019
Comment
Read Later

The astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz won half of the prize for their 1995 discovery of a Jupiter-like planet orbiting a nearby star. The cosmologist James Peebles won the other half for work exploring the structure of the universe.

An illustration of the cosmologists Wendy Freedman and Adam Riess debating the expansion rate of the universe at a recent meeting at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara, California.
cosmology

Cosmologists Debate How Fast the Universe Is Expanding

By Natalie Wolchover
August 8, 2019
Comment
Read Later

New measurements could upend the standard theory of the cosmos that has reigned since the discovery of dark energy 21 years ago.

Valeria Pettorino in the woods near CosmoStat
Q&A

An Italian Cosmologist Who Wanders in Dante’s Dark Wood

By Siobhan Roberts
November 13, 2018
Comment
Read Later

A scientist and programmer with a literary bent, Valeria Pettorino thinks multiple angles and diverse points of view are needed to unriddle the nature of dark matter and dark energy.

Art for "Dark Energy May Be Incompatible With String Theory"
theoretical physics

Dark Energy May Be Incompatible With String Theory

By Natalie Wolchover
August 9, 2018
Comment
Read Later

A controversial new paper argues that universes with dark energy profiles like ours do not exist in the “landscape” of universes allowed by string theory.

Photo of Large Magellan Cloud rotating clockwise.
Abstractions blog

What Astronomers Are Learning From Gaia’s New Milky Way Map

By Natalie Wolchover
May 8, 2018
Comment
Read Later

A roundup of some of the most important discoveries gleaned so far from the Gaia space observatory’s new map of the galaxy.


Previous
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
Next
The Quanta Newsletter

Get highlights of the most important news delivered to your email inbox

Recent newsletters
Quanta Homepage
Facebook
Twitter
Youtube
Instagram

  • About Quanta
  • Archive
  • Contact Us
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Simons Foundation
All Rights Reserved © 2023