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Why is dark matter so hard to detect?

How much of the universe is made up of dark matter?

  • Dark matter seems to outweigh visible matter roughly six to one, making up about 27% of the universe. Here's a sobering fact: The matter we know and that makes up all stars and galaxies only accounts for 5% of the content of the universe!

What is the invisible matter that we can't detect?

  • By doing this, they discovered that there must be five times more material in the clusters than we can detect. The invisible matter that we can't detect is called "dark matter.". The Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky first used the term "dark matter" in the 1930s.

What happens when two dark matter particles collide?

  • When two dark matter particles crash into each other, they might release a gamma ray. The Fermi Telescope could theoretically detect these collisions, which would appear as a burst of a gamma ray in the sky. Because Fermi has not been in space very long, scientists do not yet have enough data to form conclusions.

How can we detect dark matter in space?How can we detect dark matter in space?

Many NASA scientists use the Hubble Space Telescope to observe gravitational lensing. In addition to these indirect ways, scientists at NASA think they have a direct way to detect dark matter using the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. This telescope looks at gamma rays, the highest energy form of light.

What is 'dark matter'?What is 'dark matter'?

The missing material generating the extra gravity needed to hold galaxies together was dubbed “dark matter”. Astronomers initially thought it could be made up of stars too small or dim to be seen from Earth or by other candidates – such as neutron stars.

What is the invisible matter that we can't detect?What is the invisible matter that we can't detect?

By doing this, they discovered that there must be five times more material in the clusters than we can detect. The invisible matter that we can't detect is called "dark matter.". The Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky first used the term "dark matter" in the 1930s.

What happens when two dark matter particles collide?What happens when two dark matter particles collide?

When two dark matter particles crash into each other, they might release a gamma ray. The Fermi Telescope could theoretically detect these collisions, which would appear as a burst of a gamma ray in the sky. Because Fermi has not been in space very long, scientists do not yet have enough data to form conclusions.

image-Why is dark matter so hard to detect?
image-Why is dark matter so hard to detect?
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