Dancing in the Dark: The End of Physics? Page #7

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think the dark matter distribution

in our galaxy should look like.

As I see it, they see, essentially,

the sort of excess we've been

talking about for years.

That's a great step.

They haven't been saying that

until very recently.

So I think it's very exciting

because this could be

the first time that we are seeing

dark matter shining.

However, there is a lot more

work that we need to do to

actually confirm that what we're

seeing is dark matter.

So, we're heading in the right

direction? Right direction.

Maybe not there yet, but definitely

in the right direction.

So you're happy that the

last few years' work

hasn't been a complete

waste of time?

It doesn't seem to have been

a complete waste of time.

OK, good.

It might be that, finally, science

is making inroads

into the mysterious non-visible

world of dark matter, perhaps.

If the Hooperon checks out,

and if all the fingers being

crossed in Switzerland

and France pay off, then, at least

in theory, the deep-mine scientists

will simply have the formality

of looking in the right place.

Dark matter identified,

standard models intact,

Nobel prizes handed out.

You would think that would be

that, the end of the story.

But you'd be wrong, because there's

another problem, another

dark thing that is a description

of something we don't understand.

It's called dark energy.

So, 15 years ago some astronomers

observing distant supernovae

saw that the distance to

those supernovae was larger

than they expected,

and so the only way that they could

understand that was to have a

universe that started accelerating

three billion years ago, and

whether that carries on accelerating

or not, we don't know, but what

we do know is that there has to be

another component to the universe

which we call this dark energy.

But you don't know what it is?

No idea. Not at all.

No-one knows what it is?

No-one. No-one.

There are more theories than

there are theoreticians.

And that's a problem,

because according to the standard

model of cosmology,

it makes up most of the universe.

Our universe

consists of 4% baryonic matter.

26% dark matter.

And 70% dark energy.

And because dark energy

seems to make sense,

at least at a theoretical level,

it's the role of experimentalists

like Bob

to think of ways to explain it.

That's why he's come here to the

Dark Energy Survey

at Cerro Tololo, where one of the

world's largest digital cameras

scans the night sky

in search of more supernovae

and an ever more accurate picture

of the universe's expansion history.

You can probably see some

of the stars, and in here will be

some of the supernovae that we're

hunting to measure dark energy.

So are you hopeful?

I am hopeful.

I think we will be able to make at

least a factor-of-ten improvement

with using this instrument,

than we have today.

And then if we don't get that,

we'll have to wait for LSST.

The LSST,

the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope,

is being built on another Chilean

mountain and is due to come

on stream in 2021, representing

a significant jump in resolution.

With this instrument, we can observe

about 3,000 supernovae.

With the LSST we'll be able to

observe about a million supernovae,

and that should really nail it.

OK.

It won't though, will it? Actually?

THEY LAUGH:

See...

It'll nail it, it will nail it.

What, what will it nail?

Well, it'll nail the expansion

history of the universe

and then, hopefully, some bright

theorist will come up with...

So it's not going to nail

dark energy.

It'll just show you how it's

expanding?

It'll show us how the

universe is expanding

and then, hopefully, that will

give us some direction

in which to understand

the true nature of dark energy.

It could be that cosmology

stands on the cusp of revealing

the true nature of our universe.

Then again, it may

stand on the cusp of nothing at all.

It might be that the only way to

progress is not to look harder,

but to embrace a new physics

that's currently,

like the dark universe,

just out of reach.

HE EXHALES:

HE LAUGHS:

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