Hubble’s legacy: THE SEARCH FOR DARK ENERGY
When the Hubble Space Telescope was launched, 30 years ago this month, no one had ever heard about dark energy. But, in part thanks to Hubble, astronomers have come to realise that we live in an accelerating Universe, in which empty space is expanding ever faster and faster, thanks to this mysterious dark ingredient. This spring, a unique instrument mounted on a venerable telescope in Arizona has started compiling the most detailed 3D-map of the cosmos ever. The goal is to further our understanding of the expansion history of the Universe, and – hopefully – to uncover the true nature of dark energy.
As physicists understand it, dark energy is a property of empty space. Like some sort of anti-gravity, it pushes empty space away from itself, accelerating the expansion that started 13.8 billion years ago with the Big Bang, and creating ever more space
