Expansion of universe speeding up

LEIDEN, Netherlands, March 26 (UPI) -- A survey of 446,000 galaxies shows the universe is expanding faster with time as predicted by Einstein's theory of relativity, Dutch scientists said.

Using the Hubble telescope, the galaxies were surveyed to see how matter was distributed and how quickly it expanded, said astronomist Ludovic Van Waerbeke of Leiden University in the Netherlands.

Scientists believe the universe comprises three compounds: normal matter, which includes physical objects such as planets; dark matter, which is invisible matter that creates the gravitational pull that causes galaxies to form; and an unknown compound referred to as "dark energy" -- the force that causes the universe to expand.

"Our results confirmed that there is an unknown source of energy in the universe, which is causing the cosmic expansion to speed up, stretching the dark matter further apart exactly as predicted by Einstein's theory," Waerbeke said.