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  • James Webb: The most powerful space telescope

    On Dec 18, 2021, after years of delays, the James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to launch into orbit and usher in the next era of astronomy.

    James Webb Space Telescope

    • JWST is a joint NASA–ESA–CSA space telescope that is planned to succeed the Hubble Space Telescope as NASA’s flagship astrophysics mission
    • It is the most powerful space telescope ever built.
    • It will enable a broad range of investigations across the fields of astronomy and cosmology, including observing some of the most distant events and objects in the universe,
    • It would help understand events such as the formation of the first galaxies, and detailed atmospheric characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets.

    Its significance

    • Some have called JSWT the “telescope that ate astronomy.”
    • It is said to look back in time to the Dark Ages of the universe.

    What does the ‘Dark Ages’ of the universe mean?

    • Evidence shows that the universe started with an event called the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, which left it in an ultra-hot, ultra-dense state.
    • The universe immediately began expanding and cooling after the Big Bang.
    • One second after the Big Bang, the universe was a hundred trillion miles across with an average temperature of an incredible 18 billion F (10 billion C).
    • Around 400,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe was 10 million light-years across and the temperature had cooled to 5,500 F (3,000 C).
    • Throughout this time, space was filled with a smooth soup of high-energy particles, radiation, hydrogen and helium.
    • There was no structure. As the expanding universe became bigger and colder, the soup thinned out and everything faded to black.

    This was the start of what astronomers call the Dark Ages of the universe.

    How will JWST study this?

    Ans. Looking for the first light

    • The Dark Ages ended when gravity formed the first stars and galaxies that eventually began to emit the first light.
    • Astronomers aim to study this fascinating and important era of the universe, but detecting first light is incredibly challenging.
    • Compared to massive, bright galaxies of today, the first objects were very small and due to the constant expansion of the universe, they’re now tens of billions of light years away from Earth.
    • Also, the earliest stars were surrounded by gas left over from their formation and this gas acted like fog that absorbed most of the light.
    • It took several hundred million years for radiation to blast away the fog. This early light is very faint by the time it gets to Earth.

    Try this PYQ:

    Consider the following phenomena:

    1. Light is affected by gravity.
    2. The Universe is constantly expanding.
    3. Matter warps its surrounding space-time.

    Which of the above is/are the predictions of Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, often discussed in media?

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 3 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

     

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  • Indian meteorite helps study Earth’s formation

    The researchers from the Geological Survey of India collected about 30 meteorite fragments with the largest weighing around a kilogram near the town of Katol in Nagpur in 2012.

    Significance of meteor study

    • Now, by studying the composition of these meteorite fragments, researchers have unraveled the composition expected to be present in the Earth’s lower mantle which is at about 660 km deep.
    • Studying the meteorite could also tell us more about how our Earth evolved from being a magma ocean to a rocky planet.

    Key component of the Meteor: Olivine

    • Initial studies revealed that the host rock was mainly composed of olivine, an olive-green mineral.
    • Olivine is the most abundant phase in our Earth’s upper mantle.
    • Our Earth is composed of different layers including the outer crust, followed by the mantle and then the inner core.

    How to study a meteorite?

    • The researchers took a small sample of the meteorite and examined it using special microscopy techniques.
    • The mineralogy was determined using a laser micro-Raman spectrometer.
    • These techniques helped the team identify, characterise the crystal structure of the meteorite and determine its chemical composition and texture.

    What does the new study show?

    • The international team of scientists examined a section of this highly-shocked meteorite. It resembles to the first natural occurrence of a mineral called bridgmanite.
    • The mineral was named in 2014 after Prof. Percy W. Bridgman, recipient of the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physics.
    • Various computational and experimental studies have shown that about 80% of the Earth’s lower mantle is made up of bridgmanite.
    • By studying this meteorite sample, scientists can decode how bridgmanite crystallized during the final stages of our Earth’s formation.

    Bridgmanite: On Earth vs. on Meteorite

    • Katol meteorite is a unique sample and it is a significant discovery.
    • The bridgmanite in the meteorite was found to be formed at pressures of about 23 to 25 gigapascals generated by the shock event.
    • The high temperature and pressure in our Earth’s interior have changed over billions of years causing crystallisation, melting, remelting of the different minerals before they reached their current state.
    • It is important to study these individual minerals to get a thorough idea of how and when the Earth’s layers formed.

    How does it help understand evolution of Earth?

    • The inner planets or terrestrial planets or rocky planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are formed by accretion or by rocky pieces coming together.
    • They were formed as a planet by increased pressure and high temperature caused by radioactive elements and gravitational forces.
    • Our Earth was an ocean of magma before the elements crystallised and stabilised and the different layers such as core, mantle were formed.
    • The heavier elements like iron went to the core while the lighter silicates stayed in the mantle.
    • By using the meteorite as an analog for Earth, we can unearth more details about the formation.

    Answer this question from our AWE initiative:

    What are seismic waves? How have they helped in understanding the structure of the earth? (250 W/ 15 M)

     

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  • Linear No-Threshold (LNT) Model for Radiation Safety

    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) decisively upheld the Linear No-Threshold (LNT) model to prescribe radiation safety standards, ending the protracted controversy on the topic.

    What is the LNT Model?

    • The LNT is a dose-response model used in radiation protection to estimate stochastic health effects such as radiation-induced cancer, genetic mutations etc. on the human body due to exposure to ionizing radiation.
    • The LNT model states that biological effects such as cancer and hereditary effects due to exposure to ionising radiation increase as a linear function of dose, without threshold.
    • It provides a sound regulatory basis for minimizing the risk of unnecessary radiation exposure to both members of the public and radiation workers.

    Why in news?

    • LNT model continues to provide a sound basis for a conservative radiation protection regulatory framework that protects both the public and occupational workers.
    • The model helps the agencies to regulate radiation exposures to diverse categories of licensees, from commercial nuclear power plants to individual industrial radiographers and nuclear medical practices.
    • There are also studies and findings that support the continued use of the LNT model, including those by national and international authoritative scientific advisory bodies.

     

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  • Nobel Prize 2021

    (1) Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences, 2021

    The 2021 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences has been awarded in one half to Canadian-born David Card and the other half jointly to Israeli-American Joshua D Angrist and Dutch-American Guido W Imbens.

    • David Card has been awarded for his empirical contributions to labor economics. Joshua D Angrist and Guido W Imbens won the award “for their methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships.”
    • The 2020 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Paul R Milgrom and Robert B Wilson “for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats”.

    Contributions

    • David Card: He has analyzed how minimum wages, immigration and education impact the labor market.
      • One of the significant findings of this research was that“increasing the minimum wage does not necessarily lead to fewer jobs”.
      • It also led to the understanding that“people who were born in a country can benefit from new immigration, while people who immigrated at an earlier time risk being negatively affected”.
      • It also illuminated the role of resources available in school in shaping the future of students in the labor market.
    • Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens: They were rewarded for their “methodological contributions” to the research tool.
      • Their work demonstrated “how precise conclusions about cause and effect can be drawn from natural experiments”.

     (2) Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 2021

    The 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Benjamin List and David MacMillan for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis.

    • Last year, the honour went to Frenchwoman Emmanuelle Charpentier and American Jennifer Doudna, for developing the gene-editing technique known as CRISPR-Cas9 – DNA snipping “scissors”.

    About the Development

    • They have developed a new and ingenious tool for molecule building: organocatalysis.
      • Many research areas and industries are dependent on chemists’ ability to construct molecules that can form elastic and durable materials, store energy in batteries or inhibit the progression of diseases. This work requires catalysts.
      • According to researchers, there were just two types of catalysts available: metals and enzymes. Catalysts are any substance that increases the rate of a reaction without itself being consumed.
    • In 2000, they, independent of each other, developed a third type of catalysis. It is called asymmetric organocatalysis and builds upon small organic molecules.
    • Significance:
      • Its uses include research into new pharmaceuticals and it has also helped make chemistry greener.
      • Both these sets of catalysts (metals and enzymes) had limitations.
      • Heavier metals are expensive, difficult to mine, and toxic to humans and the environment.
        • Despite the best processes, traces remained in the end product; this posed problems in situations where compounds of very high purity were required, like in the manufacture of medicines.
        • Also, metals required an environment free of water and oxygen, which was difficult to ensure on an industrial scale.
      • Enzymes on the other hand, work best when water is used as a medium for the chemical reaction. But that is not an environment suitable for all kinds of chemical reactions.

    Organocatalysis

      • Organic compounds are mostly naturally-occurring substances, built around a framework of carbon atoms and usually containing hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, or phosphorus.
      • Life-supporting chemicals like proteins, which are long chains of amino acids (carbon compounds containing nitrogen and oxygen) are organic.
      • Enzymes are also proteins, and therefore, organic compounds. These are responsible for many essential biochemical reactions.
      • Organocatalysts allow several steps in a production process to be performed in an unbroken sequence, considerably reducing waste in chemical manufacturing.
      • Organocatalysis has developed at an astounding speed since 2000. Benjamin List and David MacMillan remain leaders in the field, and have shown that organic catalysts can be used to drive multitudes of chemical reactions.
        • Using these reactions, researchers can now more efficiently construct anything from new pharmaceuticals to molecules that can capture light in solar cells.

    Asymmetric Organocatalysis

      • The process called asymmetric organocatalysis has made it much easier to produce asymmetric molecules – chemicals that exist in two versions, where one is a mirror image of the other.
      • Chemists often just want one of these mirror images – particularly when producing medicines – but it has been difficult to find efficient methods for doing this.
      • Some molecules with mirror versions have different properties. An example is the chemical called carvone, which has one form that smells like spearmint and a counterpart that smells like the herb, dill.
      • Different versions of the same molecule might have different effects when ingested. Then it becomes important to be able to make only the mirror image of a drug that has the desired physiological effect.

    (3) Nobel Prize in Physics, 2021

    The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded with one half jointly to Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and the other half to Giorgio Parisi “for groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex physical systems.”

    • This is the first time climate scientists (Manabe and Hasselmann) have been awarded the Physics Nobel. Last year, the award was given for the research into black holes.

    Manabe and Hasselmann

    • Awarded for work in physical modelling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming.
    • Demonstrated how increases in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would increase global temperatures, laying the foundations for current climate models.

    Parisi

    • Awarded for “the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales.”
    • He “built a deep physical and mathematical model” that made it possible to understand complex systems in fields such as mathematics, biology, neuroscience and machine learning.

    (4) Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine, 2021

    Recently, two United States-based scientists, David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian have been awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.

    • They have focused their work on the field of somatosensation, that is the ability of specialized organs such as eyes, ears and skin to see, hear and feel.

    About the Discoveries

    David Julius:

    • He discovered TRPV1, a heat-sensing receptor.
    • His findings on the skin’s sense of temperature was based on how certain cells react to capsaicin, the molecule that makes chili peppers spicy, by simulating a false sensation of heat.

    Ardem Patapoutian

    • He discovered two mechanosensitive ion channels known as the Piezo channels.
      • The Piezo1 is named after the Greek word for pressure, ‘píesi’.
    • He is credited for finding the cellular mechanism and the underlying gene that translates a mechanical force on our skin into an electric nerve signal.

    Significance of Discoveries

      • The findings have allowed us to understand how heat, cold and mechanical force can initiate the nerve impulses that allow us to perceive and adapt to the world around us.
      • This knowledge is being used to develop treatments for a wide range of disease conditions, including chronic pain.

    Back To Basics: About Nobel Prizes

    • The will of the Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel established the five Nobel prizes in 1895.
    • The Nobel Prizes are a set of recognition given to fields of Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Physics, and Physiology or Medicine by The Nobel Foundation.
      • The Nobel Foundation is a private institution established in 1900, has ultimate responsibility for fulfilling the intentions in Alfred Nobel’s will.
    • The prizes in Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Physics, and Physiology or Medicine were first awarded in 1901.
    • In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank established the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

     

  • Mosquirix: First malaria vaccine to get WHO nod

    In a historic move, the World Health Organization (WHO) has endorsed the first anti-malarial vaccine, as mankind enters a key turning point in a battle waged relentlessly over decades between man and mosquito, the vector.

    Mosquirix

    • RTS,S/ASO1 (RTS.S), trade name Mosquirix acts against P. falciparum, the most deadly malaria parasite globally, and the most prevalent in Africa.
    • The vaccine was able to prevent approximately 4 in 10 cases of malaria over a 4-year period in Africa.
    • This is the first malaria vaccine that has completed the clinical development process.
    • It is also the first malaria vaccine to be introduced by three national ministries of health through their childhood immunization programs — more than 800,000 children in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi.
    • have been vaccinated, and are benefiting from the added protection provided by the vaccine as part of a pilot program.

    How the vaccine can help?

    • WHO’s recommendation is based on the advice of its two global advisory bodies, one for immunization and the other for malaria.
    • WHO has recommended that in the context of comprehensive malaria control, the RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine be used for the prevention of P. falciparum malaria in children living in regions with moderate to high transmission as defined by it.
    • The malaria vaccine should be provided in a schedule of 4 doses in children from 5 months of age for the reduction of malaria disease and burden.

    Back2Basics: Malaria

    • Malaria is caused by the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito if the mosquito itself is infected with a malarial parasite.
    • There are five kinds of malarial parasites — Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax (the commonest ones), Plasmodium malariae, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium knowlesi.
    • Therefore, to say that someone has contracted the Plasmodium ovale type of malaria means that the person has been infected by that particular parasite.
    • Malaria is treated with prescription drugs to kill the parasite. Chloroquine is the preferred treatment for any parasite that is sensitive to the drug.

    Countries that have eliminated malaria

    • Globally, the elimination net is widening, with more countries moving towards the goal of zero malaria.
    • In 2019, 27 countries reported fewer than 100 indigenous cases of the disease, up from 6 countries in 2000.
    • Countries that have achieved at least 3 consecutive years of zero indigenous cases of malaria are eligible to apply for the WHO certification of malaria elimination.
    • 11 countries have been certified as malaria-free: United Arab Emirates (2007), Morocco (2010), Turkmenistan (2010), Armenia (2011), Sri Lanka (2016), Kyrgyzstan (2016), Paraguay (2018), Uzbekistan (2018), Algeria (2019), Argentina (2019), and El Salvador (2021).

    Burden of Malaria in India

    • In 2018, the National Vector-borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) estimated that approximately 5 lakh people suffered from malaria.
    • 63% of the cases were of Plasmodium falciparum.
    • The recent World Malaria Report 2020 said cases in India dropped from about 20 million in 2000 to about 5.6 million in 2019.

     

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  • What is Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) ?

    The outages at Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram occurred because of a problem in the company’s domain name system. At the heart of it was a BGP or Border Gateway Protocol issue.

    What is BGP?

    • Simply put, it is the protocol that runs the internet or makes it work.
    • Since the internet is a network of networks, BGP is the mechanism that bounds it together.
    • When the BGP doesn’t work, internet routers can’t really figure out what to do and that leads to the internet not working.
    • The routers — big ones — keep up on updating other possible routes that are used to deliver network packets to the last possible source.
    • In this case, Facebook platforms were the last point of destination and BGP problem meant Facebook was unable to tell other networks know that it was on the internet.

    How does it work?

    • The BGP is like an entity that is responsible for creating and more importantly updating maps that lead you to sites like Google, Facebook or YouTube.
    • So if someone is responsible for making and updating the map, and they make a mistake, then the traffic — or users — will not end up reaching that place.

    How did a BGP issue affect Facebook?

    • A BGP update message informs a router of any changes you’ve made to a prefix advertisement or entirely withdraws the prefix.
    • There were a lot of routing changes from Facebook last night and then routes were withdrawn, Facebook’s Domain Name Server went offline.

    Role of DNS

    • DNS is the phonebook of the Internet.
    • People access information online through domain names — timesofindia.com or facebook.com.
    • Internet browsers use IP or Internet Protocol addresses and what DNS does is that it translates domain names to IP addresses to browsers can load Internet resources.
    • If DNS is the internet’s phone book, BGP is its postal service.
    • When a user enters data in the internet, BGP determines the best available paths that data could travel.

     

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  • Physiology Nobel for work on temperature and touch

     

    U.S. scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian have won the Nobel Medicine Prize for discoveries on receptors for temperature and touch.

    Who are the Laureates?

    • David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian, working independently in the United States, made a series of discoveries in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
    • They figured out the touch detectors in our body and the mechanism through which they communicate with the nervous system to identify and respond to a particular touch.

    What did they discover?

    • They discovered the molecular sensors in the human body that are sensitive to heat, and to mechanical pressure, and make us “feel” hot or cold, or the touch of a sharp object on our skin.
    • n 1997, Dr. Julius and his team published a paper in Nature detailing how capsaicin, or the chemical compound in chili peppers, causes the burning sensation.
    • They created a library of DNA fragments to understand the corresponding genes and finally discovered a new capsaicin receptor and named it TRPV1.
    • This discovery paved the way for the identification of many other temperature-sensing receptors.
    • They identified another new receptor called TRPM8, a receptor that is activated by cold. It is specifically expressed in a subset of pain-and-temperature-sensing neurons.
    • They identified a single gene PIEZO2, which when silenced made the cells insensitive to the poking. They named this new mechanosensitive ion channel Piezo1.

    How do they work?

    • The human ability to sense heat or cold and pressure is not very different from the working of the many detectors that we are familiar with.
    • When something hot, or cold, touches the body, the heat receptors enable the passage of some specific chemicals, like calcium ions, through the membrane of nerve cells.
    • It’s like a gate that opens up on a very specific request. The entry of the chemical inside the cell causes a small change in electrical voltage, which is picked up by the nervous system.
    • There is a whole spectrum of receptors that are sensitive to different ranges of temperature.
    • When there is more heat, more channels open up to allow the flow of ions, and the brain is able to perceive higher temperatures.

    Therapeutic implications

    • Breakthroughs in physiology have often resulted in an improvement in the ability to fight diseases and disorders. This one is no different.
    • There are receptors that make us feel pain. If these receptors can suppress, or made less effective, the person had felt less pain.
    • Chronic pain is present is a number of illnesses and disorders. Earlier, the experience of pain was a mystery.
    • But as we understand these receptors more and more, it is possible that we gain the ability to regulate them in such a way that the pain is minimized.

    [Note: We will compile all Nobel Prizes into a single post once all are awarded.]

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  • Antimalarial drug resistance in India

    In recent years there is increasing evidence for the failure of artemisinin-based combination therapy for falciparum malaria either alone or with partner drugs.

    What is Malaria?

    • Malaria is caused by the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito if the mosquito itself is infected with a malarial parasite.
    • There are five kinds of malarial parasites — Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax (the commonest ones), Plasmodium malariae, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium knowlesi.
    • Therefore, to say that someone has contracted the Plasmodium ovale type of malaria means that the person has been infected by that particular parasite.

    Burden of Malaria in India

    • In 2018, the National Vector-borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) estimated that approximately 5 lakh people suffered from malaria.
    • 63% of the cases were of Plasmodium falciparum.
    • The recent World Malaria Report 2020 said cases in India dropped from about 20 million in 2000 to about 5.6 million in 2019.

    Treatment of Malaria

    • Malaria is treated with prescription drugs to kill the parasite. Chloroquine is the preferred treatment for any parasite that is sensitive to the drug.
    • In most malaria-endemic countries including India, Artemisinin-based antimalarial drugs are the first-line choice for malaria treatment.
    • This is especially against Plasmodium falciparum parasite which is responsible for almost all malaria-related deaths in the world.

    Why in news now?

    • There are reports of artemisinin resistance in East Africa and is a matter of great concern as this is the only drug that has saved several lives across the globe.
    • In India, after the failure of chloroquine to treat P. falciparum malaria successfully, artemisinin-based combination therapy was initially introduced in 2008.
    • Currently, several combinations of artemisinin derivatives are registered in India.

    Artemisinin-based combination therapy failure in India

    • In 2019, a report from Eastern India indicated the presence of two mutations in P. falciparum cases treated with artemisinin that linked to its presence of resistance.
    • Again in 2021, artemisinin-based combination therapy failure was reported from Central India where the partner drug SP showed triple mutations with artemisinin wild type.
    • This means the failure of artemisinin-based combination therapy may not be solely linked to artemisinin. Here it is needed to change the partner drug as has been done in NE states in 2013.

    History of drug resistance

    • In the 1950s chloroquine resistance came to light.
    • Both chloroquine and pyrimethamine resistance originated from Southeast Asia following their migration to India and then on to Africa with disastrous consequences.
    • Similarly, artemisinin resistance developed from the six Southeast Asian countries and migrated to other continents, as is reported in India and Africa.
    • It would not be out of context that artemisinin is following the same path as has been seen with chloroquine.
    • Now, the time has come to carry out Molecular Malaria Surveillance to find out the drug-resistant variants so that corrective measures can be undertaken in time to avert any consequences.
    • Some experts even advocate using triple artemisinin-based combination therapies where the partner drug is less effective.

    Try this PYQ:

    Widespread resistance of malarial parasite to drugs like chloroquine has prompted attempts to develop a malarial vaccine to combat malaria.

    Why is it difficult to develop an effective malaria vaccine?

    (a) Malaria is caused by several species of Plasmodium

    (b) Man does not develop immunity to malaria during natural infection

    (c) Vaccines can be developed only against bacteria

    (d) Man is only an intermediate host and not the definitive host

     

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  • What is Meningitis?

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched the first-ever global strategy to defeat meningitis, a debilitating disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people each year.

    What is Meningitis?

    • Meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges, the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord.
    • People of any age can get meningitis.

    What Causes Meningitis?

    • Most cases are caused by bacteria or viruses, but some can be due to certain medicines or illnesses.
    • Meningitis is usually caused by a viral infection but can also be bacterial or fungal.
    • Both kinds of meningitis spread like most other common infections do — someone who’s infected touches, kisses, or coughs or sneezes on someone who isn’t infected.
    • Bacterial meningitis is rare, but is usually serious and can be life-threatening if not treated right away.
    • Viral meningitis (also called aseptic meningitis) is more common than bacterial meningitis and usually less serious.
    • Many of the viruses that cause meningitis are common, such as those that cause colds, diarrhea, cold sores, and the flu.

    What Are the Signs & Symptoms of Meningitis?

    • Meningitis symptoms vary, depending on the person’s age and the cause of the infection.
    • The first symptoms can come on quickly or start several days after someone has had a cold, diarrhea, vomiting, or other signs of an infection.

    Common symptoms include:

    • fever
    • lack of energy
    • irritability
    • headache
    • sensitivity to light
    • stiff neck
    • skin rash

    Treatment

    • Several vaccines protect against meningitis, including meningococcal, Haemophilus influenzae type b and pneumococcal vaccines.
    • If dealt with quickly, meningitis can be treated successfully.

     

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  • What is Dark Energy?

    Last week, an international team of researchers has made the first direct detection of dark energy.

    About the Project

    • The XENON1T experiment is the world’s most sensitive dark matter experiment and was operated deep underground at the INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy.
    • The finding also suggests that experiments like XENON1T, which are designed to detect dark matter, could also be used to detect dark energy.

    What is Dark Energy?

    • Dark energy is an unknown form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales.
    • The first observational evidence for its existence came from measurements of supernovae, which showed that the universe does not expand at a constant rate; rather, the expansion of the universe is accelerating.
    • Prior to these observations, it was thought that all forms of matter and energy in the universe would only cause the expansion to slow down over time.
    • Measurements of the cosmic microwave background suggest the universe began in a hot Big Bang, from which general relativity explains its evolution and the subsequent large-scale motion.
    • Without introducing a new form of energy, there was no way to explain how an accelerating universe could be measured.

    Does it exist?

    • Since the 1990s, dark energy has been the most accepted premise to account for the accelerated expansion.
    • As of 2021, there are active areas of cosmology research aimed at understanding the fundamental nature of dark energy.

    Dark energy Vs Dark matter

    • Everything we see – the planets, moons, massive galaxies, you, me, this website – makes up less than 5% of the universe.
    • About 27% is dark matter and 68% is dark energy.
    • While dark matter attracts and holds galaxies together, dark energy repels and causes the expansion of our universe.

     

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