Anti Pleasure

Hey folks, another science entry!

Today I’m going to talk about what makes up all of the universe. I’m sure you are saying, of course the trees and the mountains, the oceans, the stars, the planets, the sun etc. But in fact, in cosmology, a mysterious force called dark energy makes up 74% of the universe’s mass! This dark energy actually increases the rate of expansion of the universe.

This is so bizarre, something we cannot get our heads around is the fact that the universe is made up of nothing that we can see. Take a look at this chart below:

So as you can see, the other 22% is believed to be dark matter and only 4% of the visible matter that we know. The visible matter obviously would be what I mentioned, the stars, trees, oceans, planets and so on. Dark matter is “hypothetical matter” and what that means is that it does not interact with the electromagnetic force.

Basically the nature of this energy and matter is a myriad in cosmology and physics. It is some force that scientists cannot figure out the pieces of the major puzzle, and that is our universe. So, dark energy and dark matter, detectable only because of their effect on the visible matter around them, make up most of the universe.

This is so important because there have been three theories of the fate of our universe. We will never see it in our lifetime. I would worry more about global warming, us destroying OUR planet to be quite honest. But this perplexed puzzle of the universe, scientists question what will really happen to the universe in the end. Three theories have been:

The big crunch: to put these all bluntly, the universe would re collapse, and space would reverse into a black hole singularity.

The big freeze: this would be the “heat death” of the universe. “In which it has “run down” to a state of no thermodynamic free energy to sustain motion or life. In physical terms, it has reached maximum entropy.” Wikipedia

The big rip: This is the latest theory from studying supernovae (stars in their last stages.) In this theory it is believed that matter of the universe from the stars and galaxies would tear everything apart.

Interesting stuff, yes, no? I think it is. I doubt we will ever know in our life time. But it really makes me wonder the fate of our universe, if there was one before, if there is going to be one afterwards. All I worry about right now, as I mentioned, is the fate of our own planet! Excessive pollution and war, I don’t know what has made our species get to this point, it’s over my head. There are so many gaps in our knowledge, I just wish my our brains could be used more, to know more about where we come from, and why we exist.

In the mean time, think green folks. Do the best you can to prevent our planet from being destroyed. We have really made a terrible imprint on this planet.

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