Dark Energy and the Future of the Universe

To celebrate the ZKM’s twenty-fifth anniversary in 2014, Peter Weibel invited astronomer and Nobel laureate Adam G. Riess to give a presentation on his research into the expansion of the universe. Together with the High-Z Supernova Search Teams, which analyzed exploding stars during the late 1990s, Riess determined that the universe is expanding at a constantly accelerating rate. The cause of this accelerating expansion is so-called dark energy, an as-of-yet unexplored form of energy which accounts for approximately 70% of the universe. Inquiring about the fate of the universe, Riess presents a range of scenarios in his video message.