What is Dark Energy and How Does it Influence the Universe's Expansion?

Question

Regarding the universe's expansion, I am familiar with the term 'dark energy'. What is this dark energy and what is its function in the universe?

Answer 1

Dark energy is an 'unknown force' that causes the universe to keep expanding at an accelerating rate. This was the case when Edwin Hubble ‘showed’ that distant galaxies appear to be moving away from the observer much quicker than nearer galaxies and this received attention from the red shift in the light emitted. If gravity clumps matter together then the ‘dark energy’ pushes the fabric of space apart, leading to an even faster rate of expansion of the universe. It is considered an inherent property of space, and as the volume of space increases, so too does the quantity of dark energy. The nature that this unknown force with which comprises about 70% of the universe remains unresolved among the major challenges in astrophysics.

Comments

There is no dark energy. There is only one reason to postulate it, to explain the exponential expansion rate of the universe. The expansion was discovered in 1929. The concept of dark energy became mainstream after 1998 when it was discovered that the expansion is accelerating.
   If something accelerates at a constant rate it will get faster and faster. If a ship travels at a constant 1g acceleration rate it would achieve about 95% light speed in 1 year.
   Electricity is drawn towards potential and the universe as a whole behaves the same way. Electricity comes into our homes because the neutral circuit provides the potential.
   Physicists in the last century did not postulate dark energy because they understood that the expansion is a fundamental aspect of the universe. The fact that the expansion is accelerating does not invalidate their reasoning, it's what the known laws of physics would predict provided gravitational forces are not strong enough to counteract the process.
  All studies to find dark energy have been fruitless because it doesn't exist. To say there is dark energy is to say there is 5 fundamental forces, there is 4

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maybe dark matter energy is what's inside a black hole