What is the current state of research in astronomy?

Dark Matter is the winner by a mile cause with out that stuff nothing would be here

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And the solar system is messed up enough when some brain decided Pluto was not a planet

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Now the Dark Energy is in limbo as to who believes it is even real seeing that there is already

Positive and Negative energy

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So next is the question of will faster than the speed of light travel be accomplished while someone alive to day will see it happen

Doubtful cause to find some nut that is willing to set behind the steering wheel of that space ship is going to be real hard to find

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So that kind of kills the deep space exploration thing

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We're looking to solve equations for black holes, to complete the Standard Model of Particles, to explore minimal supersymmetric particles, explore guage symmetry and the possible unifying of all four fundamental forces to explain the initial state of the universe at t=0, a.k.a. the moment the big bang occurred. We will use particle accelerators to explore dark matter, dark energy, probe high energy collisions for useful information, learn about super-symmetric particle partners, more quantum mechanics and further push to the unifying theory of everything (which ties in with the fundamental forces thing I mentioned earlier. The only force we're having trouble really picturing fitting with the others is gravity, the next is the strong force, but work is already being done on this).

Dark energy is thought to be the driving force of the acceleration of the universe, taking up 75% of it's total mass/energy density.

Research astronomy -

Large Hadron Collider, CERN, particle accelerator, M theory.

Check up on RAVE. A 10 nation survey to measure speeds of a million stars by 2010.

ASKAP, the australian square kilometre array pathfinder.

Space Travel -

Orion, NASA's new baby, taking over from Apollo in 2010 to take human life to the moon by 2024. Then mars.

Messenger probe sheduled to reach mercury 2011.

GRACE, senses variations in earth's gravity.

5 spacecraft journeying presently. New Horizons being the fastest.

Ladies and gentlemen, the state of research in astronomy is strong:-)

To get a meaningful answer, you kind of have to narrow it down a bit for us.