Salutations

Greetings, and welcome back to yet another lengthy blog post. I am currently typing this because I have managed to work myself into a funk about the endless winding road that is PLP reflections. Don’t get me wrong, undertaking this procedure is essential to the learning operation. Although 54 blog posts into my second high school year? That is approximately 30 blog posts in my eighth grade year, and seeing as there are 10 months of school that brings us to a sum total of three blog posts every month, which is equal to one every ten days. Sitting down in the same location, beginning with the same opening sentence and ending line has me yearning for a more purposeful reflection method.

I am currently procrastinating completing two different blog posts and all of the work that they entail. Seeing as this is the case, I have decided to do twenty minute of research on the modern knowledge of dark energy. I hope this pleases you folks. Enjoy my weapon of mass procrastination.

Dark Energy is a hypothetical form of energy that exerts a negative, repulsive pressure, behaving like the opposite of gravity. It has been hypothesised to account for the observational properties of distant type Ia supernovae, which show the universe going through an accelerated period of expansion. Like Dark Matter, Dark Energy is not directly observed, but rather inferred from observations of gravitational interactions between astronomical objects.

Dark Energy makes up 72% of the total mass-energy density of the universe. The other dominant contributor is Dark Matter, and a small amount is due to atoms or baryonic matter.

In 1998 two teams of astronomers announced that distant, z~1 type Ia supernovae were slightly too faint than model predictions of an expanding (yet slowing) universe. To be fainter, the supernovae must be farther away and this requires that the expansion of the Universe was slower in the past. Both teams agreed that the universe is going through a phase of accelerated expansion. Dark Energy was invoked to drive this acceleration.

Ok I am still not in the mood to work, although a stress-free weekend is calling my name. If you happen to be one of the few people reading this before it is archived, then congratulations and welcome to the elite.

“Good morning, and in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening and goodnight” – The Truman Show