What is Dark Matter? New fundamental particle may help (STA BREAKING NEWS and ARCHIVES)

by Theresa , Tuesday, February 03, 2015, 06:10

Nobody knows what Dark Matter is, even though 85% of the Universe’s mass is thought to be made up of it. Researchers from the Max-Planck-Institut für Physik in Germany and the University of Southampton in England believe a new fundamental particle may help explain what it is.

Scientists are convinced Dark Matter exists. It has a gravitational effect on stars and galaxies, something is bending light (gravitational lensing), and astronomers are aware of its imprint in the Cosmic Microwave Background (the afterglow of the Big Bang).

Dark matter was first postulated by Dutch astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort (1900-1992) in 1932. It is called Dark Matter because we cannot see (observe, detect) it.

Even though the indirect evidence is there, and compellingly so, to date not one astrophysicist has been able to detect Dark Matter directly.

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