Dark Energy May be Gobbling Up Dark Matter in Our Universe

Scientists may have uncovered some startling new information about dark matter and dark energy. They've discovered hints that dark matter is slowly being swallowed by dark energy that grows as it interacts with dark matter. This, in turn, is slowly the growth of structure in the cosmos.

"This study is about the fundamental properties of space-time. On a cosmic scale, this is about our universe and its fate," said David Wands, one of the researchers, in a news release. "If the dark energy is growing and dark matter is evaporating we will end up with a big, empty, boring universe with almost nothing in it."

Dark matter actually provides a framework for structures to grow in the universe. The galaxies that we see and live within are built on the scaffolding. Yet if dark matter is evaporating, that scaffold growth is slowed.

In order to better understand the nature of the interactions between dark energy and dark matter, the scientists examined data from a number of astronomical surveys, including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

"Since the late 1990s astronomers have been convinced that something is causing the expansion of our universe to accelerate," said Wands. "The simplest explanation was that empty space-the vacuum-had an energy density that was a cosmological constant. However there is growing evidence that this simple model cannot explain the full range of astronomical data researchers now have access to; in particular the growth of cosmic structure, galaxies and clusters of galaxies, seems to be slower than expected."

The findings reveal a bit more about the structure of the universe and what might be causing this slowing. That said, scientists need to conduct further researcher before they draw any firm conclusions about whether or not dark energy is gobbling up dark matter.

The findings are published in the journal Physical Review Letters.