Dark Energy in Light of Quran and Science

Dark Energy 

What is Dark Energy?

The unexplained force behind the universe's accelerating expansion is known to physicists as "dark energy." One piece of evidence implies it is concealed inside black holes and could be a force or type of energy.

The mysterious phenomenon known as dark energy accelerates the universe's expansion by acting in opposition to gravity. Even though dark energy makes up as much as three-fourths of the universe's mass energy, physicists have been unable to determine what it really is. Other than sharing the adjective "dark," which simply indicates that scientists don't truly know what these entities are, dark energy and dark matter have no actual relationship to one another.

In 2023, researchers claimed to have found evidence that a form of energy held by black holes could account for dark energy. If the discovery is accurate, it would suggest that dark energy cannot be explained by our existing models of the cosmos, which only include Einstein's theory of gravity. However, to be accepted by physicists as an explanation for dark energy, follow-up results would need to validate the findings.

Who made dark energy possible?

The American astronomer Edwin Hubble observed in 1929 that a galaxy moves away from us more quickly the further it is from the Earth. The universe's expansion was discovered as a result of this observation. This doesn't imply that our planet is at the center of the universe; rather, it indicates that everything in space is constantly veering away from each other. Scientists discovered a further shocking finding about 60 years after Hubble's discovery, By observing the light from distant stars, scientists have long attempted to determine cosmic distances with great accuracy. Two separate teams examined far-off supernovas in the late 1990s and discovered that the light from the star explosions was fainter than anticipated. This suggests that the expansion of the cosmos is not just continuing but accelerating. Since then, the discovery has left physicists perplexed.

What is dark energy's purpose?

Though dark energy is still poorly understood, scientists have used what they do know to build universe-explaining models that cover everything from the Big Bang to the current large-scale structure of galaxies. According to some of these scenarios, everything will be destroyed by dark energy billions of years from now.

According to the dominant theories, dark energy is a form of stored energy that is part of the structure of space-time. According to Baojiu Li, a mathematical physicist at Durham University in the UK, "This simple model works very well practically and it is a straightforward addition to the cosmological model without having to modify the law of gravity." However, the theory has one significant flaw, According to Li: Physicists anticipate that the energy of the vacuum should be 120 orders of magnitude more than what cosmologists have measured.

Measurements taken from ancient and dormant black holes in February 2023 revealed that these cosmic behemoths are expanding more quickly than anticipated. The results imply that black holes, within the context of Einstein's theory of relativity, contain a form of vacuum energy inherent in the fabric of space-time that can explain the universe's expansion. No new physics would be required to explain dark energy if the finding holds up. In two papers that were published in The Astrophysical Journal and The Astrophysical Journal Letters, they reported their findings.

An alternate theory holds that there are five fundamental forces, including gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces, and dark energy. This hypothesis, however, does not clarify why people are not aware of this additional power in their daily activities. Therefore, theorists have also developed imaginative theories that assert this enigmatic force is concealed in some manner.

There is now a heated disagreement within the physics community about the observed value of dark energy. Using the cosmic microwave background, a faint echo of the Big Bang, some physicists have estimated the power of dark energy. However, other astronomers who gauge the strength of dark energy using the light from far-off cosmic objects have come up with a different result, and nobody has been able to explain the disparity as of yet. Though proponents of that theory have yet to persuade the bulk of their colleagues of this explanation, some specialists have proposed that the strength of dark energy fluctuates throughout time.

The Qur’an and the Universe Expansion

The Qur’an mentions 1450 years ago in Surah Dhaariyaat, Chapter. No.51, Verse. No. 47, that “We have created the vastness of space” The Arabic word ‘Musioona’ means, vastness or the expanding universe. So the Qur’an mentions 1450 years ago that the universe is expanding. And according to Stephen Hawking, he writes in his book, ‘The Brief History of Time’. He says that the discovery of the expanding universe is the greatest discovery of this century. This is mentioned in the Qur’an 14 and half Centuries before. There could be unbelievers or non-Muslims who would remark, "It is not great that the Qur'an talks about astronomy because the Arabs were very advanced in the field of astronomy." They are correct, and I concur, that Arabs had excellent knowledge of astronomy.” I do agree with them that the Arabs were advanced in the field of Astronomy. But I would like to remind them, that it was centuries after the Qur'an was revealed that the Arabs advanced in the field of Astronomy. So it is from the Qur'an, that the Arabs learned about Astronomy, and not vice versa. There were many things about Astronomy mentioned in the Qur’an that the Arabs didn’t speak about and which we have come to know recently.