# Dark Energy
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-energy/608459
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 5, 2012, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-energy/608459 "2012-01-05T03:23:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Dave\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_L)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2012, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-energy/608459/1 "2012-01-05T03:23:33Z")
So what is the difference between Guth’s therory of cosmic inflation and the “discovery” of dark energy. Both seem to implicate enormous expansion.
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2012, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-energy/608459/2 "2012-01-05T03:49:31Z")
Cosmic inflation says that in the first 10 ^ (-32) of a second after the Big Bang the universe expanded by a factor of 10 ^ 78 and then quit expanding so fast:
> **[Inflation (cosmology)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_(cosmology))**
>
> In physical cosmology, cosmic inflation, cosmological inflation, or just inflation, is a theory of exponential expansion of space in the early universe. The inflationary epoch is believed to have lasted from 10−36 seconds to between 10−33 and 10−32 seconds after the Big Bang. Following the inflationary period, the universe continued to expand, but at a slower rate. The acceleration of this expansion due to dark energy began after the universe was already over 7.7 billion years old (5.4 billio...
Dark energy says that the universe is now slowly increasing the rate at which it’s expanding:
> **[Dark energy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy)**
>
> In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is an unknown form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales. The first observational evidence for its existence came from measurements of supernovas, which showed that the universe does not expand at a constant rate; rather, the universe's expansion is accelerating. Understanding the universe's evolution requires knowledge of its starting conditions and composition. Before these observations, scientists thought that all forms Two...
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2012, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-energy/608459/3 "2012-01-05T03:55:26Z")
Incidentally, “implicate” does not mean the same as “imply.”
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-energy/608459/4 "2012-01-07T02:05:31Z")
Inflation and what’s going on right now with the “dark energy” are qualitatively similar, and might (or might not-- we don’t understand dark energy nearly well enough to say) stem from qualitatively similar causes. The major (and possibly only-- see above disclaimer about our ignorance) difference between them is quantitative: Under inflation, the Universe had a doubling time of a tiny, tiny fraction of a second, while currently, the Universe has a doubling time of billions of years.