Endless Facts, One Snippet at a Time
Dark Matter: The Invisible Mass of the Cosmos
- Dark matter is invisible—it doesn’t emit, absorb, or reflect light.
- It makes up about 27% of the universe, outweighing normal matter five to one.
- Galaxies spin so fast they should fly apart—dark matter’s gravity holds them together.
- Astronomers first suspected it in the 1930s from galaxy cluster studies.
- Gravitational lensing—light bending around unseen mass—offers direct evidence of dark matter.
- It forms a vast cosmic web, shaping galaxies and large-scale structures.
- Leading candidates include WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) and axions.
- Dark matter is not black holes, planets, or ordinary stars—it’s truly exotic.
- Experiments deep underground and in space are hunting for dark matter particles.
- Unlocking dark matter’s nature may reveal hidden physics beyond the Standard Model.