- Out there in the Universe, it isn’t just normal matter that’s present, but dark matter as well: a mysterious, invisible substance that, as far as we can tell, gravitates, but doesn’t interact through any other means.
- When we look at the gravitational effects that massive objects have on space, we find dark matter forms a diffuse, halo-and-filament-like network of structure.
- Normal matter, however, collapses into stars, galaxies, planets, and much more. If dark matter gravitates, and does so the same as normal matter does, then what prevents it from collapsing?
Here in our Universe, it may be the normal matter that we can directly detect, measure, manipulate, experiment with, and observe, but it’s the dark matter that represents most of the mass in the Universe.
Whereas all the “stuff” that the planets, stars, gas, plasma, and dust are composed of represents about 4.9% of the total energy in the Universe, the mysterious dark matter — whose nature is unknown but for which the observational astrophysical evidence is overwhelming — makes up a whopping 27% of the cosmic energy budget.
Only dark energy, making up 68% of the Universe, is more important from an energy density perspective. READ MORE...
