Dark Matter and Dark Energy

Are They The Same Thing?

What is dark matter? Is it the same as dark energy? ... Scientists say that the majority of things in the Universe neither emit nor absorb any kind of radiation (in this case meaning rays or waves) such as light, heat or sound and are completely dark. The evidence for this was first recognized in the 1930s, but it was not taken seriously until the 1970s.

Scientist say that Galaxies and clusters of galaxies appear to be held together by the gravitational pull of some other type of material that we can not actually see; this invisible material has been dubbed “dark matter” and is thought to make up a bit more than 1/5^th of the entire Universe. This is important because it has also been determined that without this un-seen substance, the universe would randomly drift apart, because without this additional weight, the gravitational effect seen throughout the universe could not exist.

Perhaps a better way to describe dark matter in astronomy and cosmology is to say that it is a form of matter that can neither emit nor scatter light or other types of energy which display wave like characteristics, and additionally, it cannot be observed / detected by optical or radio astronomy.

I think it’s interesting to note that there is strong reason to suspect that dark matter isn't made of ordinary atoms at all; in addition, no one to date has been able to prove just what dark matter is really made of, although practically everyone in this field of study agrees that dark matter exists.

In short summary, dark matter is thought to account for about 22% of all the material in the universe even though we can’t see it, but we’re pretty sure it exists, because of its gravitational effect on the matter or objects that we can see.

“Dark energy”, on the other hand is a lot more speculative; this substance was discovered a lot more recently. It’s the name we give to whatever it may be that is causing the expansion of the universe at an ever increasing speed (since 1998, it has been known that the expansion rate is increasing).

This is the exact opposite of what was believed prior to 1998, you see the general consensus was that the universe was slowing down, and had been ever since the “big bang” occurred as few years back.

Dark matter and dark energy combined make up 96% of everything in existence, while ordinary matter like the earth, sun, the moon, and the stars makes up the remaining 4%.

In short, Dark energy is the force that expands the universe. Dark matter is the force that keeps everything else from crashing into one another.

It is generally believed that the universe is expanding faster than the speed of light. The scientific community has been able to make this determination primarily due to the study of dark energy. So if you are one of those individuals who pose the question “why bother” with such research, may I remind you that ideas and accidental inventions flourish in such environments.

In this instance, perhaps Einstein’s theory stating that nothing can exceed the speed of light should be re-examined.

The long and short of it may come down to the old bad news and good news scenario:  The bad news: Ultimately the fate of our universe, from stars and galaxies to atoms and subatomic particles, yes, that includes earth, will be torn apart by the expansion of the universe at a some point and time in the future, that is a certainty.  The good news: This is expected to happen in a couple a billion years, plus 20 billion years (a total of 22), so we have a lot of time to develop warp speed, which everyone knows, is the ultimate faster-than-light propulsion system.

Sources ...

http://plus.maths.org/content/what-dark-matter                                     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter                             http://coraifeartaigh.wordpress.com/2008/05/22/dark-matter-and-dark-energy/ 
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_dark_energy_and_dark_matter#ixzz1cy8TrZc8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy                                           http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Rip                                                         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light