Accurately measuring the dark universe

The theory that dark matter and dark energy make up most of the cosmos has been confirmed by extremely accurate measurements from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) collaboration involving UCL scientists. The findings verify that only 4% of the universe is made of ordinary matter, 26% is in the form of mysterious dark matter and space is filled with an unseen dark energy, which is causing the accelerating expansion of the universe and makes up 70%. "It is remarkable that dark energy, proposed in its simplest form by Einstein 100 years ago, is now measured so accurately by DES. However, the nature of dark energy is still a big mystery," said Professor Ofer Lahav (UCL Physics & Astronomy), chair of the DES:UK Consortium and chair of the DES Advisory Board. "This DES result is the culmination of 13 years of dedicated work by over 400 scientists from seven countries, including the UK. We've only used data collected from the first year of the survey, so anticipate further discoveries in the coming years that will better our understanding dark energy." The new measurements of the amount and distribution of dark matter in the present-day cosmos were announced today at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. They were made using the largest ever galaxy-based map of cosmic dark matter and with a precision that, for the first time, rivals that of early universe measurements made by the European Space Agency's orbiting Planck observatory.