The nature of dark energy

Astronomers have used many different methods to try and figure out the nature of dark energy: the mysterious substance comprising roughly 70% of the total energy in the universe and responsible for accelerating its expansion. These including measuring the distance to Type Ia supernovae, measuring the mass of galaxy clusters, the clumping of galaxies, and not strong lensing of more distant galaxies by nearby galaxy clusters. Read more about it here and here and here. Hopefully all these methods keep on agreeing.

What is Dark Energy?

Maybe it's isn't so mysterious after all, or it is. Read the debate here. The sad thing is, the pessimist in me wonders if we can ever find out...

February 11th Radio Show: Cosmology

Over a month after it first aired, here is the February 11th radio show on cosmology, where I discuss why astronomers think the universe is mostly composed of dark matter and dark energy. Hope you enjoy and, as always, please leave below or email me any questions, comments, or concerns you might have. Thanks for listening!

Description of October 1st Radio Show: Astronomy News

Already available here, below is a detailed description of the October 1st episode of this radio show:

• Calendar of upcoming Astronomy/science events in the greater Poughkeepsie / New York City area.
• Interview with Dr. Jeffrey Katz of the Custer Institute and Observatory in Long Island on their public outreach and astronomy reseearch efforts.
• News: Phoenix Mars Lander finds evidence for snow falling in upper atmosphere of Mars as well as past presence of liquid water under the surface; Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter images fractures on Martian surface believed to be evidence of past water flow (link); rising costs might delay Mars Science Laboratory and possibly cancel future Mars missions; NASA hosted a teleconference last Monday to discuss Hubble malfunction and resultant delay to servicing mission; capsule returned by NASA's Stardust mission to go on display at Air & Space Museum; IBEX spacecraft attached to rocket, scheduled for October 19th launch; NASA investigating three possible designs for next satellite to study extra-solar planets (link, listen to my interview with Dr. Jennfier Wiseman of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for more information on NASA's research program on exoplanets); Sloan Digital Sky Survey begins program to map galaxies in order to study dark energy (link); artificial meteorite built by ESA shows that some microbes can survive in space and re-entry into atmosphere (link); any future mission to the Moon will have to contend with the problem of moon dust (link); add your name to NASA's upcoming Glory satellite by going here; successful re-entry for ESA's Jules Verne ATV; ESA left with only 192 astronaut candidates after first round of psychological testing; NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff playing chess with Earthlings, go here to join in; NASA mission control now streaming live, 24/7/365, here.

Thank you very much for listening. Hope you enjoyed, and please email me or leave any comments you have below.