Recent discoveries and updates of the Chandra mission in video and audio formats.
The Universe Darkly (02-29-2008)
When you look up at the night sky, you see a lot of things glowing like stars, planets, and galaxies. So it might sound strange to hear that most of the Universe is actually dark. The truth is the protons, neutrons and electrons that make up everything we can see, and that means everything with telescopes we've got, accounts for only about 4% of the mass and energy of the Universe. The rest is dark and mysterious. More specifically, about 70% of the Universe is what is known as dark energy; about 26% is so-called dark matter. Modern day astronomers have developed many tactics to explore the dark Universe, including using telescopes like Chandra.
When you look up at the night sky, you see a lot of things glowing like stars, planets, and galaxies. So it might sound strange to hear that most of the Universe is actually dark. The truth is the protons, neutrons and electrons that make up everything we can see, and that means everything with telescopes we've got, accounts for only about 4% of the mass and energy of the Universe. The rest is dark and mysterious. More specifically, about 70% of the Universe is what is known as dark energy; about 26% is so-called dark matter. Modern day astronomers have developed many tactics to explore the dark Universe, including using telescopes like Chandra.
- View Video Podcast (36.5 MB, Runtime: 5:23)
- With closed-captions (at YouTube)
- Listen to Audio Only
- Transcript
- Related Links:
-- The Universe in a Jelly Bean Jar
-- The Universe
Revised: February 09, 2012
