This new article in Scientific American presents a historical overview of the search for Dark Energy and the evolution of scientific and technological breakthroughs that have enabled our current understanding of the history and expansion of the universe. 

The article highlights the endeavors of many researchers – including Berkeley Lab physicist and 2011 Nobel Laureate Saul Perlmutter – and features images from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), which collects optical spectra (light broken up into its constituent wavelengths) for about 35 million galaxies, quasars, and stars. DESI’s first data, released last June, contained nearly two million objects, and researchers are now using this data to construct a 3-D map of the universe that extends back to a time when the universe was about a quarter of its present age.

Researchers around the world continue to investigate this powerful force that encompasses so much of our universe and drives cosmic expansion.

Read the full article:
The Most Shocking Discovery in Astrophysics Is 25 Years Old
A quarter of a century after detecting dark energy, scientists are still trying to figure out what it is.
December 1, 2023 / Richard Panek / Scientific American (December 2023 issue)