# What does Dark Energy create? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 6, 2016, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dark-energy-create/761973 "2016-08-06T19:48:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dark-energy-create/761973/21 "2016-08-10T10:25:34Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > It doesn’t exactly “create” anything. Space doesn’t expand via the introduction of new space. It’s just the existing space gets stretched. > > The football field still only has 100 yards. The yards are just a teense longer than they were. There isn’t any new 101st yard. > > ETA: space, however, will get “hollower” – or less dense with matter – because matter, either atoms or galaxies, doesn’t expand the same way space does. Gravitational attraction is stronger than the pressure of expansion. (And as for the atom, the electrical force is even vastly stronger yet.) So the average distance between galaxies is increasing. So are we getting bigger as the universe expands? Or is our bubble of “matter” staying the same size and getting carried along for the ride? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2016, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dark-energy-create/761973/22 "2016-08-10T22:05:21Z")
Our bubble of matter is staying the same size. We _would_ be getting bigger (very, very slowly) if we didn’t have any internal forces holding us together, but we do, and they’re far, far larger than any forces associated with the cosmological expansion. > [@](#): > > Quoth **jasg** : > > are you sure you have the correct sign 😃 Yup, dark travels in the same direction as light. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-dark-energy-create/761973.md?page=1)