Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Scientists have discovered that a mysterious pressure dubbed “dark energy” makes up about 68% of the total energy content of the cosmos.
Exploring the nature of dark energy is one of the primary reasons NASA built the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, whose measurements will help illuminate the dark energy puzzle.
What exactly is dark energy? More is unknown than known, but theorists are chasing down a couple of possible explanations. Discovering how dark energy has affected the universe’s expansion in the past will shed some light on how it will influence the expansion in the future. One theory suggests dark energy would eventually become dominant over the fundamental forces, causing everything that is currently bound together — galaxies, planets, people — to break apart.
Exploring dark energy will allow us to investigate, and possibly even foresee, the universe’s fate.
Music: “Searching Everywhere,” Nicholas Montazaud [SACEM], Universal Production Music
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Producer: Scott Wiessinger (eMITS)
Animator: Krystofer Kim (eMITS)
Narrator: Sophia Roberts (eMITS)
Public affairs officer: Claire Andreoli (NASA/GSFC)
Editor: Scott Wiessinger (eMITS)
Sound effects editor: Sophia Roberts (eMITS)
Science writer: Ashley Balzer (eMITS)
Science writer: Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park)
This video can be freely shared and downloaded at svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13314. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, the music and some individual imagery may have been obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. Specific details on such imagery may be found here: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13314. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/.
If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: youtube.com/NASAGoddard
Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
· Instagram instagram.com/nasagoddard
· X twitter.com/NASAGoddard
· Facebook: facebook.com/NASAGoddard
· Flickr flickr.com/photos/gsfc
Scientists have discovered that a mysterious pressure dubbed “dark energy” makes up about 68% of the total energy content of the cosmos.
Exploring the nature of dark energy is one of the primary reasons NASA built the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, whose measurements will help illuminate the dark energy puzzle.
What exactly is dark energy? More is unknown than known, but theorists are chasing down a couple of possible explanations. Discovering how dark energy has affected the universe’s expansion in the past will shed some light on how it will influence the expansion in the future. One theory suggests dark energy would eventually become dominant over the fundamental forces, causing everything that is currently bound together — galaxies, planets, people — to break apart.
Exploring dark energy will allow us to investigate, and possibly even foresee, the universe’s fate.
Music: “Searching Everywhere,” Nicholas Montazaud [SACEM], Universal Production Music
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Producer: Scott Wiessinger (eMITS)
Animator: Krystofer Kim (eMITS)
Narrator: Sophia Roberts (eMITS)
Public affairs officer: Claire Andreoli (NASA/GSFC)
Editor: Scott Wiessinger (eMITS)
Sound effects editor: Sophia Roberts (eMITS)
Science writer: Ashley Balzer (eMITS)
Science writer: Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park)
This video can be freely shared and downloaded at svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13314. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, the music and some individual imagery may have been obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. Specific details on such imagery may be found here: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13314. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/.
If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: youtube.com/NASAGoddard
Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
· Instagram instagram.com/nasagoddard
· X twitter.com/NASAGoddard
· Facebook: facebook.com/NASAGoddard
· Flickr flickr.com/photos/gsfc
