Dark Matter / Energy

Announcements, suggestions for new forums, ideas, etc.
Guest

Dark Matter / Energy

Post by Guest » July 09 2009

I have several questions that pertain to dark matter and dark energy, and while I have done a number of searches on the internet, I have not been able to really find an answer to these things. I do not have a scientific background, but I like to know things and the idea of dark matter and energy seems very interesting to me.

For starters, is it safe to assume that dark matter is made up of dark energy? It would not be the other way around in my mind (i.e. dark matter making dark energy) because in order to have matter, you must first have energy, right?

I have read that dark energy is "responsible" for the rate of expansion of the universe. So my question is this - is the rate of expansion exponential or would it be linier?

Thanks!

-Robert