First light is a term astronomers use to describe taking a new telescope out under the stars. I will use it here just this once to say that this is the beginning of many things. This is the beginning of fatherhood, the beginning of a new hobby in astronomy and the begin of this journal where I will document everything I experience. I hope that I will continue to stargaze and write in this journal for years to come.
At this time (2015) not much is known about dark matter other than that it must make up most of the matter of the universe. It’s existence is concluded based on the gravitational effects on visible matter. We can see the effects of dark matter as gravitational lensing.
Our current understanding of the universe states that 4.9% of matter is atoms(visible matter), 26.8% is dark matter and 68.3% is dark energy.
Discovered Accidentally, the great unknown factor now said to be the force driving the accelerating expansion of the Universe. Currently so little is known about this in theoretical physics that dark energy is described as a place holder for what could be driving the acceleration. It may not end up being energy at all and/or it may even be several things combined.
Scientist observing the stars observed 2 types of stars, population I stars high in metallic elements and population II stars low in metallic elements. It was later theorized that there must have existed near zero metallicity stars, labelled population III stars which would have been made from the primordial mass of the big bang and not from the recycled masses of other exploded stars. For the first time scientists using the ESO’s VLT telescope think they may have found evidence of population III stars in a very distant galaxy labelled CR7