Dark Energy | The Schools' Observatory

What is the Universe made of?

When we look around us, it can seem like the universe is made entirely of matter. Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space. We can see matter almost everywhere.

A pie chart against a black background with a few stars visible. There is a large pale pink segment, labelled "68% Dark energy", with a dark brown and orange cloud around the middle of the pie chart. The next largest segment, labelled "Dark matter 27%", is dark green with some faint stars. The smallest segment, labelled "Visible matter 5%", is cloudy dark purple and pink.

This work by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is licensed under Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal

The Universe

Cosmology is the study of the Universe. It doesn't look at small objects, like stars or planets. It investigates the Universe on a large scale.

Many, many galaxies against a black background. Some are tiny dots, and they range in size all the way up to small spheres or swirls. They have different shapes, some more spiraled than others, whilst some appear like smudged lines. They range in colour from red, orange, white, green, and blue. — The Hubble eXtreme Deep Field (XDF). Covering an area less than 1/10 of the Moon's width, the image contains about 5,500 galaxies.

How is the Universe Expanding?

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Create An Expanding Universe

You have likely heard about the Universe expanding. Or that redshift can tell us about the movements of galaxies. Both are difficult ideas to imagine and understand.

Read more about Create An Expanding Universe

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