Dark Matter: Physical Presence or Our Imagination? What Is Dark Matter? Before 1990 we thought the universe would eventually slow Dark Matter vs. Dark Energy down enough and start to collapse. That is until 1998 when we While Dark Matter is referringOR to a observed a Supernova that particle that has gravity interacting contradicted this theory and proved mass, dark energy is referring to that the universe has been speeding up over time. Scientists the force1 causing the universe to then had to come up with a theory accelerate. The observations that to help explain why this is have confirmed the existence of occurring. The name of this theory was Dark matter. Dark matter is a some kind of Dark Matter, also question of what creates the space showed that the galaxies in the GLASS PER 20 LB between everything else that we universe aren’tOF BODY WEIGHT coming closer AFTER BEFORE BEFORE have discoveredWAKING UP through observableEACH MEAL GOING TO BED scrutiny. So far we have not been together, but are rather able to breach that wall as of yet. accelerating away from each other We have come up with theories and more and more quickly. The force mathematics that would support the that is causing the galaxies in the presence of dark matter and it is even relatively accepted that dark universe to accelerate like this is matter makes up around 85% of what we call Dark Energy.. the total matter in the universe. With this Einstein talks about a cosmological constant which would BETTER BRAIN HEALTHY helpMOOD explain why theBOOST universe is HEART accelerating instead of slowing down. This also states that empty Wimp Particle space contains its own energy One of the most popular theories, WIMPs, because it is a property of space stand for weakly interacting massive particles. itself. They are a hypothetical particle that could be what makes up dark matter. WIMPs, if they exist, must have been around since the early History universe just after the Big Bang. In order to produce the effects that we have observed, Dark MatterMUSCLE was first postulated scientifically as WEIGHT early as 1884GAIN by Lord Kelvin. Over the next WIMPs must have certain characteristics.LOSS First, century the idea was still being explored by while they are affected by gravity and the scientists like Jan Oort, however there wasn’t weak nuclear force, they do not interact with sufficient technology to determine anything light which makes them appear invisible to us. completely. This changed in 1960-1978 when a This means that they must be made of some Vera Rubin and Kent Ford used new other subatomic particles besides the ones we spectrograph technology. Vera Rubin was know of(protons, neutrons, and electrons). actually making measurements she thought Additionally, they must not degrade over time, were uninteresting and in non-competitive unlike the elements in the periodic table that fields of astronomy when she made her first gradually break down into smaller molecules discoveries. Using measurements of the galaxy over time. To account for the mass speed of rotation as well as “redshift” discrepancy observed in the universe, WIMPs calculations the need for a dark matter to exist have to be very massive and slow-moving. was confirmed. Now going into the future, This is what allows them to clump together scientists are engaged in confirming the true with gravity and have such a strong effect on nature of dark matter among many many the formation and expansion of the universe. theories Why Study Dark Matter? The nature of our universe is one of the most important studies the human race needs to understand. While the understanding of Dark Matter will be important for astronomy and space travel, it will also be extremely important to our understanding of physics and possible new technologies. It will be very exciting when in the near future more light is shed on what Dark Matter truly is..