So we're looking at this big chunk of the Universe as a way of finding evidence for dark energy and characterising its nature.

BBC: Getting the measure of dark energy

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer was designed to search for dark matter by collecting high energy radiation known as cosmic rays, and then sort through it looking for a certain class of particle believed to be created after two bits of dark matter collide in space and destroy each other.

FORBES: Experiment May Have Found Dark Matter, The Key To A Cosmic Mystery

The European mission will instead study the influence of dark energy by looking for subtle distortions in the way galaxies appear as they line up on the sky, and by measuring the patterns in the three dimensional distribution of galaxies through time.

BBC: Dark discussion ahead for Europe and US