Dark Energy and Cosmological Constant

One of the unresolved problems in cosmology is that the measured mass density of the universe has revealed a value that was about 30% of the critical density. Since the universe is very nearly spatially flat, as is indicated by measurements of the cosmic microwave background, about 70% of the energy density of the universe was left unaccounted for. Another observation seems to be connected to this mystery. Generally one would expect the rate of expansion to slow down once the universe started expanding. The measurements of Type Ia supernovae have revealed that the expansion of the universe is actually accelerating. This accelerated expansion is attributed to the so-called dark energy (DE).Here we give a brief overview on the observational basis for DE hypothesis and how cosmological constant, initially proposed by Einstein to obtain a static universe, can play the role of dark energy.