If Einstein disproved Aether with Special Relativity, doesn't that contradict with him discovering dark energy?

Einstein disproved Aether with special relativity when he discovered that light waves don't need to propagate through any medium. But, If Aether and "Quintessence" are the same and "Quintessence" is a form of dark energy,


How is it that he disproved Aether, when he is said to be the one who 'discovered' dark energy and the accelerating expansion of the universe?





And what exactly is the difference between Dark energy and dark matter?|||Dark energy is the name given to the missing energy that we can't see or explain which must exist in order for the universe to be expanding at its current rate. It doesn't necessarily exist. But, if we don't find it, it means we have to go back to the drawing board on some rather basic ideas.





Dark matter is the matter we can't see or detect that must exist in order for galaxies to have the shape and rotational speed they do without stars flying away, and to account for "missing matter" that big bang models predict.





Neither of these really contradicts the lack of aether. Aether wasn't about adding missing energy or mass, but rather providing a medium for the apparent wave action of light. Also, dark matter and energy don't necessarily exist everywhere like aether was thought to.





Something like the concept of aether has come back around, however, in a different form. If you're interested, read a little about the Higgs Field.|||Einstein proved that a light wave does not need a medium to propagate through. This made the idea of the aether irrelevant; it had never been proven to exist but was a crutch used because of the lack of understanding of the properties of light.





You are mistaken that he discovered dark energy. He added a "cosmological constant" to his equations concerning general relativity to counter expansion. Observations show that the universe is expanding at a rate near to this calculated constant, and dark energy is the newest theory on the force of this expansion. Einstein calculated the existence (but had no theory or name) of dark energy by accident; he was trying to keep his equations valid in a static universe.





Dark energy and dark matter are very, very different (and opposite in a way). Dark matter is the hypothetical missing mass that is calculated to exist in galaxies and throughout the universe. Dark matter theoretically helps hold galaxies together; it is an attractive force that works with gravity. Dark energy is a repulsive force theorized to help explain the expansion of the universe and is a completely repulsive force.|||No, he only proved that you didn't need ether to explain everything. He didn't exactly prove there's no ether.





Dark energy is the presumed force that is causing the universe to expand faster and faster. Einstein did invoke a constant to correct for dark energy, but he didn't understand it at the time. He called it "his biggest mistake".





Dark matter is a type of presumed mass (that doesn't interact with light or other radiation) that would explain the odd movements of galaxies and other structures that seem to violate Newton's laws to some degree.|||Aether and Quintessence are NOT the same.


Einstein did NOT discover dark energy.


Einstein CERTAINLY did NOT discover the accelerating expansion of the universe.