Researchers have compiled all of the available evidence on the mysterious nature of dark energy. Their conclusion? While there are hints that it may be "phantom," its true nature remains frustratingly elusive.
Dark energy was discovered in the late 1990s, when two teams of astronomers independently found that distant space.com/6638-supernova.html" style="text-decoration: underline; box-sizing: border-box;">supernovas were dimmer than they should have been. This led the astronomers to conclude that our universe wasn't just expanding — something that had been known for almost a century — but that it was also accelerating in its expansion. So the universe isn't just getting bigger every day; it's getting bigger faster every day.
