暗物质和暗能量的区别是什么?

The universe may seem like an impossibly massive void, speckled only by stars, planets and the occasional cigar-shaped object.

宇宙可能看起来像一个巨大得难以置信的空间，只有星星、行星和偶尔出现的雪茄形状的物体点缀其间。

But the truth is, the cosmos is rich with energy and elements. We just can't process them.

但事实是，宇宙充满了能量和元素。我们就是无法处理它们。

In fact, for all of humanity's probings into the cosmos — wielding everything from the Hubble Space Telescope to the 64-dish array of radio telescopes known as MeerKAT— we still can't get a fix on some of its most common elements.

事实上，尽管人类不断探索宇宙——从哈勃太空望远镜到被称为猫鼬的64碟射电望远镜——我们仍然无法确定其中一些最常见的元素。

Like dark matter and dark energy.

比如暗物质和暗能量。

Dark matter may be composed of particles so exotic we don't know how to look for them. (Photo: GiroScience/Shutterstock)

Dark matter 101

暗物质101

Dark matter is also not antimatter, a material composed of subatomic particles that annihilate normal matter. (And, if we could add a layman's theory, we also know that it is neither Nutella nor very old fruitcake.)

暗物质也不是反物质，反物质是一种亚原子粒子组成的物质，它能消灭正常物质。(如果我们能加上一个门外汉的理论，我们也知道它既不是Nutella也不是非常古老的水果蛋糕。)

But the prevailing opinion is that dark matter is almost incomprehensibly foreign to us. It eschews the usual one-two punch of protons and neutrons in favor of far-out building blocks like axions or Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPS).

但普遍的观点是暗物质对我们来说几乎是不可理解的陌生。它避开了通常的质子和中子的一击两击，而是选择了像轴子或弱相互作用大质量粒子(wimp)这样的遥远的构建块。

Dark energy 101

暗能量101

But while we can say that dark matter is a thing, dark energy is much more elusive — and as its name suggests, more dynamic. Think of it as a happening, rather than a thing.

但是，尽管我们可以说暗物质是一种物质，但暗能量要难得多——正如它的名字所暗示的那样，暗能量更具活力。把它看作是一件正在发生的事情，而不是一件简单的事情。

Something is pushing the universe outward at a rapid rate. And that something may be dark matter. (Photo: Triff/Shutterstock)

An expanding universe, of course, has been a given since, Edwin Hubble — yes, that Hubble — first used an Earth-based telescope to note the "redshift" of distant galaxies, and by that we mean the farther away something is, the more the wavelength of the light is stretched, so the light is seen as "shifted" towards the red part of the spectrum.

当然,宇宙的膨胀已经给定,埃德温·哈勃——是的,哈勃望远镜——通过地面望远镜第一次使用要注意遥远星系的“红移”,和我们的意思是东西越远,光线的波长越紧张,所以光线被视为“转移”向光谱的红色部分。

The idea that this expansion would slow down over time makes sense. You can't run from gravity.

随着时间的推移，这种扩张会放缓的想法是有道理的。你无法逃离地心引力。

But Hubble — the telescope this time — disabused us of that notion. It found evidence that the universe is expanding faster than anyone ever predicted. It's growing at such a torrid clip, scientists say we may need to overhaul the rules of physics to understand why.

但哈勃——这一次是哈勃——让我们打消了这种想法。它发现了宇宙膨胀速度比任何人预测的都要快的证据。科学家们说，它的生长速度如此之快，我们可能需要彻底改变物理学的规则来理解其原因。

What kind of energy is the universe possessed of that allows it to fly in the face of gravity? Einstein may have called it back in the early part of the 20th century with his theory of a cosmological constant — a discarded notion that scientists dismissed as his "greatest blunder."

宇宙拥有什么样的能量能让它在重力面前飞行?爱因斯坦可能在20世纪早期用他的宇宙学常数理论将其称为宇宙常数——一个被科学家们斥为他“最大错误”的被抛弃的概念。

His theory suggests an unvarying density of energy causing the universe to buck against gravity and push outward. That energy saturates even the blankest expanses of space.

他的理论表明，一种不变的能量密度导致宇宙逆重力而行并向外推。这种能量甚至充满了最空旷的空间。

Hello dark energy, our old friend. Of course, the only sign of its existence is the fact that something is pushing this ever-accelerating cosmic expansion. Is it, as some theories suggest, a fluid or field that fills space and has a counteractive effect on matter and energy as we know it?

你好，暗能量，我们的老朋友。当然，它存在的唯一迹象是有什么东西在推动这个不断加速的宇宙膨胀。它是否像某些理论所说的那样，是一种充满空间的液体或场，对我们所知的物质和能量有反作用?