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Astronomy & Space vocabulary · Cosmology

Dark energy

Meaning in astronomy & space, with examples

nounCommon term

In astronomy & space, dark energy means: The unknown cause of the accelerating expansion of the universe. It makes up about two thirds of the total energy content of the universe.

In Turkish: karanlık enerji

How it is used

A term from cosmology research and science journalism. The accelerating expansion was discovered in 1998 through studies of distant supernovae, work that won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. Large sky surveys now measure how dark energy behaves over time.

Example sentences

  1. Dark energy is pushing galaxies apart faster and faster.

  2. Nobody yet knows what dark energy really is.

Common collocations

  • the nature of dark energy
  • dark energy survey
  • dark energy and dark matter
  • dark matterAn invisible form of matter that neither gives off nor absorbs light but whose gravity holds galaxies and galaxy clusters together. Its nature is still unknown.
  • universeAll of space and time and everything in it: matter, energy, planets, stars and galaxies. Its observable part is about 93 billion light-years across.
  • redshiftThe stretching of light from an object that is moving away from us or whose light crosses expanding space, so that its spectral lines shift to longer, redder wavelengths.
  • Big BangThe scientific model in which the universe began about 13.8 billion years ago in an extremely hot, dense state and has been expanding and cooling ever since.
  • supernovaA huge stellar explosion that can briefly shine as brightly as a whole galaxy. It happens when a massive star collapses or when a white dwarf gains too much mass.

More terms: Cosmology

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