The Mystery of Dark Energy and the Expanding Universe

At the beginning of last century, it was discovered that our universe is expanding. Contrary to expectation, it was observed in 1998 that this expansion was not slowing down but accelerating! The causative agent of this accelerated expansion—dubbed “dark energy”—is unknown, and it is one of the most important unsolved mysteries in modern physics. Learn about current and future experiments that will help us learn more about the nature of dark energy from Dr. Andrés Plazas, an expert on dark energy. Dr. Plazas is a NASA JPL Solar System Ambassador and an Associate Research Scholar in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. For his work in characterizing systematic errors in weak gravitational lensing he received in 2016 the Fundación Alejandro Ángel Escobar national prize in Natural and Exact Sciences, one of the highest scientific recognitions in his native Colombia.