The Elephant in the Universe: 100-year search for dark matter Author: Govert Schilling The Enigma of Dark Energy and Einstein's Lost "Blunder"

The Elephant in the Universe: 100-year search for dark matter Author: Govert Schilling  The Enigma of Dark Energy and Einstein's Lost "Blunder" Headline: Universe's Acceleration Reveals Dark Energy, Validating Einstein's Constant Just as the search for dark matter intensified, cosmology faced a new puzzle: in 1998, two independent teams discovered that the universe's expansion is not slowing down but is, in fact, accelerating. This unexpected finding led to the concept of dark energy, a mysterious vacuum energy in empty space, as the force driving this acceleration. This revelation meant that visible baryonic matter accounts for only about 4.9% of the universe, with dark matter making up 26.6%, and dark energy a staggering 68.5%. Ironically, this unexpected acceleration harked back to Albert Einstein's "cosmological constant," a term he had introduced into his equations as an accelerating force to maintain a static universe and later deemed his "biggest blunder." The discovery of dark energy suggests Einstein may have had a profound, albeit unrecognized, foresight. 1941