What is dark matter?
Q: What is dark matter?
A: Dark matter is a type of matter thought to be responsible for much of the mass in the universe. It was first proposed by Jan Oort in 1932 and Fritz Zwicky in 1933 as an explanation for the spinning speeds of stars and galaxies, respectively.
Q: How do scientists believe that dark matter exists?
A: Scientists believe that dark matter exists based on observations such as the spinning speeds of galaxies, gravitational lensing of background objects, and the temperature distribution of hot gas in galaxies and clusters of galaxies.
Q: What percentage does dark matter make up in the universe?
A: According to estimates from the Planck mission team, dark matter makes up 84.5% of total matter in the universe, while dark energy plus dark matter make up 95.1% of total "stuff" in the universe.
Q: How can we detect dark matter?
A: Because dark matter does not seem to give off or reflect light, x-rays, or any other radiation, it cannot be detected using instruments used to find normal matter like hot gas, stars, planets etc. The only way we can tell if it is there is by how it affects things we can "see" through gravity.
Q: What did a group of scientists claim they had found a way to detect in 2006?
A: In 2006 a group of scientists claimed they had found a way to detect dark matter by observing two far-away galaxy clusters that had crashed into each other at high speed - normal matters would have been scattered nearby after collision while dark matters would not; thus allowing them to measure gravity and detect what looked like two clouds of dark mater with a cloud of normal mater (hot gas) between them.
Q: What are some examples that suggest there is darkness material present in our universe?
A: Examples suggesting there is darkness material present include observations such as spinning speeds of galaxies, gravitational lensing background objects and temperature distributions hot gas found within galaxies and clusters
