DARK ENERGY

DARK ENERGY : 

What is dark energy and where does it get the power to do what it does with the universe? We know very little about it, except for the fact that it’s a large-scale repulsive anti-gravity force that acts between clusters of galaxies. Also that it’s all-pervasive and arises out of the nothingness of empty space. That’s because according to quantum mechanics, empty space is full of particles living on borrowed time and energy, thus it’s not too unreasonable to suggest dark energy might also occupy that ‘empty’ space.

A related and intriguing question that haunts some astrophysicists, however, is what the fate of the universe will be after trillions of years if this dark energy keeps on accelerating it all the time? It’s speculative but what they’ve managed to envisage is not a very pretty picture. For if the repulsion becomes stronger, the universe could be torn apart by a ‘Big Rip’ during which everything expands so violently that first the galaxies, then the stars, then planets, and finally atoms and subatomic particles come unglued in a catastrophic end of time scenario.

The Hindu View
Believers needn’t worry though. According to Hindu religious texts, the creation and destruction of the universe is a cyclic process which repeats itself forever. Each cycle starts with the birth and expansion of the universe equalling 311.04 trillion years, followed by its complete annihilation and then by renewed creation again.

source : FB