Dark Matter

Dark Matter

Digital artwork of celestial nebula texture applied to a tessellated shape on a purple grid background, where no stars existed.
Atomic nuclei form in minutes. Atoms form in hundreds of thousands of years. But the "dark ages" rule thereafter, until stars finally form.
An image of a blue sphere with a black background showcasing particle physics research.
U.S. particle physicists recently recommended a list of major research projects that they hope will receive federal funding.
SpaceX rocket
Freethink's weekly countdown of the biggest space news, featuring Starship's second test flight, a new "dark mysteries" telescope, and more.
An visualization of dark matter across the universe
The paper does not prove the existence of dark matter, but it mostly eliminates a rival theory called Modified Newtonian Dynamics.
A diagram showing the difference between matter and antimatter.
In the earliest stages of the hot Big Bang, equal amounts of matter and antimatter should have existed. Why aren't they equal today?
Nasa's nebulas and galaxies - exploring parallel universes.
What do ghosts and anomalous galaxy rotation rates have in common? Some sci-fi enthusiasts believe the answer involves "parallel universes."
euclid globular cluster NGC 6397
Sometimes, going "deeper" doesn't reveal the answers you seek. By viewing more Universe with better precision, ESA's Euclid mission shines.
Friedmann equation
If you said "with the Big Bang," congratulations: that was our best answer as of ~1979. Here's what we've learned in all the time since.
An image showcasing the captivating shape of space featuring a mesmerizing red and blue nebula.
Einstein's theory of general relativity introduced the concept of space having a shape. So, what is the shape of space?
A blue circle with bokeh lights around it.
From ancient Greek cosmology to today's mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, explore the relentless quest to understand the Universe's invisible forces.
LL Orionis bow shock nebula
The laws of physics don't prefer matter over antimatter. So how can we be certain that distant stars & galaxies aren't made of antimatter?
most distant gravitational lens
A more distant galaxy liked the lens so much that it went and put a ring on it. Here's the science behind this remarkable cosmic object.
cosmic inflation big bang dark ages
The hot Big Bang was an energetic, brilliantly luminous event. Today's Universe is alight with stars. But in between, the dark ages ruled.
NASA Fermi LAT pulsar gamma ray sky
An enormous amount of antimatter is coming from our galactic center. But the culprit probably isn't dark matter, but merely neutron stars.
Nasa image of a spiral galaxy that challenges cosmology.
Cosmology is unlike other sciences. When our view of the Universe changes, so does our understanding of philosophy and science itself.
quantum gravity
Dark matter hasn't been directly detected, but some form of invisible matter is clearly gravitating. Could the graviton hold the answer?
baryon acoustic oscillations
A spherical structure nearly one billion light-years wide has been spotted in the nearby Universe, dating all the way back to the Big Bang.
Big bang diagram consensus crisis
There are a few clues that the Universe isn't completely adding up. Even so, the standard model of cosmology holds up stronger than ever.
Raisin bread expanding Universe
Two fundamentally different ways of measuring the expanding Universe disagree. What's the root cause of this Hubble tension?
gaia ESA milky way
Einstein's laws of gravity have been challenged many times, but have always emerged victorious. Could wide binary stars change all that?
X-ray view cartwheel galaxy
There are two types of missing, or "dark" matter: baryonic (made of normal matter) and non-baryonic. Have we finally found the normal stuff?
dark matter
Back in the 1930s, Fritz Zwicky postulated the existence of dark matter. No one took it seriously until Vera Rubin's work: 40 years later.
An image of a blue object in a blue box depicting axions.
The hunt for the elusive particles continues.
JADES galaxies
For many years, cosmologists have claimed the Universe is 13.8 billion years old. A new paper says no, it's 26.7 billion. How do we decide?
big bang mirage
A cute mathematical trick can "rescale" the Universe so that it isn't actually expanding. But can that "trick" survive all our cosmic tests?
a close up of two stars in the sky.
In many ways, we are still novices playing with toy models seeking to understand the stars. 
atom quantum
In physics, we reduce things to their elementary, fundamental components, and build emergent things out of them. That's not the full story.
cold fuzzy dark matter simulations
In a far-reaching discovery with astrophysicist Karolina Garcia, we discuss what's in the Universe and how it grew up.
warm-hot intergalactic medium sculptor wall
Just by observing the tiny amount of deuterium left over from the Big Bang, we can determine that dark matter and dark energy must exist.