The Bad Astronomer, Dr. Phil Plait, writes about an excellent web documentary on Dark Energy over at HubbleSite.org. Physics - and especially cosmology - are heady subjects, so it’s nice when discoveries can be presented in an easy to understand manner. HubbleSite is a site that I always manage to spend a ridiculous amount of time on when I hit it. Last year, Alex and I watched their documentary on how Hubble works, which we both found pretty fascinating. I managed to blow most of my lunch the other day reading about and watching a video about the Hubble Deep Field.

I will probably show Alex this site in the next week or so. Even though it’s probably at the limits of his understanding, I think it’s good to expose him to it and have him ask questions. I remember driving my father crazy asking him questions about Cosoms when I was Alex’s age; now it’s Alex’s turn. Besides, I think that Alex gets a big kick out of coming up with questions that I can’t answer and have to look up. I’m guessing that will continue on as he gets older. I have mixed feelings about that.

The dark energy site also contains some additional materials which go into a great deal more detail on the topics discussed. I just want to pull one bit from this detail. This paragraph - which is talking about the recent discoveries in the field - shows the true spirit of scientific inquiry.

It shows scientists that there is a gap in our knowledge that needs to be filled, beckoning the way toward an unexplored realm of physics. We have before us the evidence that the cosmos may be configured vastly differently than we imagine. Dark energy both signals that we still have a great deal to learn, and shows us that we stand poised for another great leap in our understanding of the universe.

Basically, we don’t know everything. Hell, we probably will never know everything. The important thing is that we keep searching.