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Regarding the dark energy debate/question, has anyone factored for the output of the stars themselves? (piefed.social)
submitted 1 day ago by DevDave@piefed.social to c/askscience@lemmy.world
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Disclaimer: I know enough about astronomy to know that I know pretty much nothing.

As dark energy was explained to me, it is a placeholder in the equation(s) for measuring the expansion of the universe. Rephrasing, we know the universe is expanding but we can't account for some amount of the force involved.

I hope I am making sense and I am not too far out in the weeds.

To my question: all of the stars are blasting out not just photons but also substantial amounts of physical matter in various states (gas, plasma, solid) that also includes material from the various objects in the solar system (eg atoms of water from mars). Wouldn't that mixture of massless photons and physical material have some significant influence on everything else?

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[-] Dookieman12@piefed.social 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

The name "dark", in reference to dark matter or dark energy, has nothing to do with light or photons; it refers to the fact that they can't be detected. We haven't been able to build any kind of device that can measure either or even determine whether they are or are not present within a certain area of space.

As far as we know, they either exist somewhere within our universe, or the equations we've "proven" to represent the fundamental reality of the universe as we know it are wrong in some way.

If you ask me, either prospect is equally exciting and interesting.

this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2026
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