The mysteries of the evolution of the universe were discussed at the 2010 Icko Iben Jr. Distinguished Lecture in Astronomy Wednesday at Foellinger Auditorium.

The audience was taken on a trip to the beginning of time to understand how the universe evolved, led by J. Anthony Tyson, professor of physics at the University of California Davis.

The universe formed over 13.7 billion years ago, Tyson said.

“We know what drove that formation, and it’s called dark matter,” he said. “It completely controls the dynamic of the evolution of the universe.”

Our galaxy is surrounded by a halo of dark matter, Tyson said, which holds it together. Without it, the galaxy would rip apart.

On the other end of the spectrum is another force, dark energy.

“Dark energy is pulling the universe apart,” he said.

Tyson said these elements are tremendously prevalent in the universe.

“95 percent of our universe is made out of something we do not understand, either dark matter or dark energy,” he said.

Dark energy accounts for 70 percent, while dark matter accounts for 25 percent. The remaining five percent is made up of free hydrogen and helium, stars, neutrinos, and heavy elements.

Yet, much remains to be learned about both of these, Tyson said.

Dark matter was first proposed in the 1930s, and dark energy was not hypothesized until 1998.

These discoveries have proven some previously accepted physics wrong, Tyson said, which excited him because that means new physics exists.

“Somehow, Einstein is wrong, on a large scale,” he said. “His equations for gravity eventually break down when you get on a scale larger than our galaxy.”

To learn more about dark matter and dark energy, astronomists need to upgrade the way they are looking at the sky, Tyson said, which would require a new kind of telescope.

Tyson directs a national effort to build a Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), which is already under construction due to private funding, he said.

It will make great strides in understanding the mysteries of the universe, he said.

Through the LLST, the distance of approximately 4 billion galaxies will be able to be measured.

“That’s 1000 times more than we know the distance to right now,” he said.

In addition, it will be able to probe dark energy, give images of dark matter, and discover all earth-threatening asteroids.

“We can actually survey the entire sky rapidly, we can only do that to little pieces now,” Tyson said.

Professor Tony Wong said he is excited about the LLST technology.

“For astronomy education, it’s going to be almost like the Wikipedia. It’s going to give everyone access to all of this information,” he said.

New interests in dark matter were sparked for Natalie Gannon, freshman in DGS.

“It’s just weird, if we really never knew that was out there, what else is out there?” she said.