Question

With the discovery of dark energy, what best defines critical density?

a) The correct amount of matter and energy to make the universe flat.

b) The density of dark energy needed to accelerate the universe's expansion.

c) The amount of matter needed to counteract dark energy.

d) The amount of matter and energy needed to hold galaxies together

Answer 1

I think it’s C but I might be wrong

Answer 2

The correct answer is A. According to the Friedmann Equations, critical density is the correct amount of matter and energy to make the universe flat.

Step-by-step explanation:

In cosmology, the critical density is the energy density for which space-time is flat on a large scale. In other words, the critical density is the energy density for which the spatial curvature of a homogeneous, isotropic and expanding universe is zero.

The critical density of the Universe expresses the density that discriminates the closed universe from the open one, that is to say between the one dominated by gravity (density greater than the critical one) by the one dominated by the expansion (density lower than the critical one).