Dark star crashes
pouring its light
into ashes
– Rob Hunter
Astrophysicists observing galaxy movement realized something was amiss. Based upon the rotational speed of the galaxies, they should be flying apart because they appeared not to have enough visible mass to keep them together. Yet they obviously are not doing so. Something was needed to make observation fit physics, so enter ‘Dark Matter’. It’s called dark because we cannot see it. Certainly not through telescopes as it does not emit light. Nor does it absorb or emit any form of electromagnetic radiation that we know of at least. We only presume it exists because something must account for the gravitational motions of the galaxies and thus the overall structure of the observable universe. The numbers vary, but of the known matter in the universe (not accounting for energy) dark matter may constitute close to 85% of the total. Huh? Yeah that’s right of all the matter in the universe we can only ‘see’ about 15%.
Now it seems that the majority of those smart guys in physics believe that dark matter is probably mostly comprised of some as of yet unknown subatomic particle. Although… there are some interesting unconventional ideas including parallel worlds and alternate dimensions. (of course!) And others which require a reshaping of both Newton’s and Einstein’s work on gravity. Plus there may also be a relationship to black holes, which partially explains the missing mass.
But the mainstream money is on the unknown particle, and there is a lot of current and planned research and experimentation going in to finding it. Much of this work is carried out deep under the earth’s surface where the interference from cosmic radiation is minimized. In general these particles are being called WIMPS. Weakly Interacting Massive Particles. In recent years there have been some possible events that may be sightings, but the jury is still out.