Dark Energy and where does it come from?

Written on Tue, 7 June 2016

Dark Energy has been a subject that is heavily researched on till today, for a very simple reason; We have absolutely no clue what it is.

Now, before we get to it, let's clear out some misconception about it:

1. It is not dark matter. They are not the same, despite sharing a common word.
2. It is not dark. We are not talking about visible light here. The dark represent something that is currently unobserved, unknown, and not fully understood.
3. It is not magic. Need me explain more?

Ok, so we have cleared out some of these misconception, what do we really know about it? To even begin with, we must first understand the background of how we came to realise it.

The universe is expanding

We know that the universe is expanding because we can observe that galaxies are moving away from us. The stars in the milky way isn't expanding with the universe because the gravity pull from the black hole in the middle of our galaxy is holding everything together. But just about everything else in the universe is.

The galaxies are not just moving away from us, but they are moving at an accelerated rate. That's where things get weird. It's not supposed to.

Gravity pull is suppose to slow down the expansion

Gravity is such an attractive force that it will pull everything to itself. Just as our milky way is held together by a strong gravity, the universe expansion should slow down and eventually collapse. Just as you pull a rubber band, it's elasticity will eventually snap it back together. In order to prevent it, you need to apply energy. And even more so if you want to pull the rubber band at an accelerated rate (assuming you have a rubber band that can stretch forever).

So what is causing the universe to expand at an accelerated rate?

Secular scientist call it Dark Energy, or anti-gravity as it does the opposite effect of gravity resulting in a constant expansion of the universe. Many details of it remain speculative. Evidence of it comes from indirect observations.

What does the bible say about it?

It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. - Isaiah 40:22

The bible has indicated that God is responsible for the "stretching" and "spreading" of the universe "like a curtain" and "like a tent" respectively. Through the bible, we know that the universe has been expanding before modern science validates it.

This goes against the creation myth that the universe is eternal and unchanging, as scientist once thought. The idea of an expanding universe would have been considered nonsense to most scientists of the past. Yet, the same bible, that taught about an expanding universe in the past, is still being validated by modern science.

While we know that God is responsible for the expansion of the universe, His methods and ways are still a mystery to us. Thus, we still call it Dark Energy. Perhaps one day, we will know better as we advance through science.