Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: thedoc on 17/07/2013 10:30:01

Title: Is there any dark energy on Earth?
Post by: thedoc on 17/07/2013 10:30:01
Kenneth Silva  asked the Naked Scientists:
   
When dark energy is spoken of, it's always "out there" somewhere and everywhere. But, if it's "out there" and "everywhere", that means it's right here too, doesn't it?
Aren't we living in a sea of dark energy? And if so, won't we one day be able to tap into it and harness it, thereby providing unlimited and free energy for everyone?

Thanks.
Ken Silva
Laveen, AZ
USA

What do you think?
Title: Re: Is there any dark energy on Earth?
Post by: lightarrow on 17/07/2013 12:49:02
Yes, it's right here too, if it exists.
About exploiting that energy, it would be quite difficult for essentialy two reasons:
1. its density is low, so you should take it from enormous volumes of space to get significative amounts of it;
2. as far as physicists believe, it should permeate all the space and bodies, it's not present only in specific bodies or specific regions of space, so you couldn't exploit gradients of energy density; imagine, as a metaphor, to be in a region of space at uniform temperature: you can't exploit thermal energy there because you need regions/bodies at different temperature to do it.
Title: Re: Is there any dark energy on Earth?
Post by: njskywalker on 22/07/2013 03:46:59
Yes dark energy is everywhere it is the space between all matter. Its the space between atoms, its the vacuum flux. Theres a lump of it at the center of earth. Its between the earth and the sun . Its what connects all matter in our universe... space!
Title: Re: Is there any dark energy on Earth?
Post by: Pmb on 22/07/2013 04:42:03
Quote from: thedoc
When dark energy is spoken of, it's always "out there" somewhere and everywhere. But, if it's "out there" and "everywhere", that means it's right here too, doesn't it?
That’s the current thinking, yes.

Quote from: thedoc
Aren't we living in a sea of dark energy?
Yes.

Quote from: thedoc
And if so, won't we one day be able to tap into it and harness it, thereby providing unlimited and free energy for everyone?
No. There’s nothing to suggest anything like that whatsoever. Dark energy is a very strange animal and we really don’t understand it. All we know about it is its gravitational effects, that it’s causing the universe to expand at an accelerating rate.
Title: Re: Is there any dark energy on Earth?
Post by: Pmb on 22/07/2013 04:43:45
Yes dark energy is everywhere it is the space between all matter. Its the space between atoms, its the vacuum flux. Theres a lump of it at the center of earth. Its between the earth and the sun . Its what connects all matter in our universe... space!
Dark energy is nothing like this. Dark energy is not the space between all matter. Space is the space between all matter. The same is what's wrong with the rest of your comments.