Scientists are paying even more attention lately to a mysterious force of nature called dark energy. The force of dark energy is really strong, so strong that it’s pushing stars and galaxies away from each other. It’s very scary to think about how this dark energy could be affecting the universe, though scientists aren’t yet sure if this energy is a constant force, or if its strength is weakening.

New ideas about dark energy are arising from an international research collaboration called the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) that is creating a three dimensional map of the universe to see how far galaxies have grown apart and mixed together in the past 11 billion years. According to AP News, “Carefully tracking how galaxies move helps scientists learn about the forces that are moving them around.”

DESI analyzed 6 million galaxies and quasars last year, but this year they have gathered new data pushing the number to nearly 15 million. The goal of the collaboration is “to map around 50 million galaxies and quasars by the end of its survey in 2026.”

Exploding stars are what give scientists the idea that the dark energy may be decreasing, and different parts of the world have their own data on dark energy that they hope to release in the future. More data that confirms DESI’s measurements are needed to be sure that the dark energy is decreasing. If dark energy isn’t waning, scientists say that “our universe may continue to expand forever, growing ever colder, lonelier and still.” On the other hand, if dark energy is proved to fade away with time, the expansion of the universe will stop and it will collapse in on itself in an event called the Big Crunch. 

Which outcome do you predict? Leave a comment below!