Dark energy will be the focus of study in a major European space mission to begin within the next ten years, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).
In 2019, a space telescope called Euclid will be launched, and scientists hope it will successfully map the geometry of the Universe across 10 billion light years, giving some insight into the impact of dark energy on the structures of the galaxies.
According to Saul Perlmutter, Adam Riess and Brian Schmidt, who all co-shared the Nobel Prize for Physics for measuring the expansion of the Universe after the "Big Bang," the Universe’s expansion is speeding up as opposed to decelerating. Dark matter is the force that is thought to be behind the acceleration.
Dark matter is a force thought to comprise almost 75 percent of the universe.
The launch of Euclid will join another mission, called Solar Orbiter, in the ESA’s “Cosmic Vision” plan for 2015-2025. Solar Orbiter will explore the sun more closely than any previous mission.
"It is designed to make major breakthroughs in our understanding of how the Sun influences its environment, in particular how the Sun generates and propels the flow of particles in which the planets are bathed, known as the solar wind," said a press release written by ESA, as quoted by Reuters.
