View a simulation of the dark matter filaments that make up the cosmic web

Dark matter detected in the cosmic web

Researchers from Yonsei University detected dark matter on the cosmic web, a network of filaments that feed gas into galaxies. The detection was made possible by using the general theory of relativity to analyze gravitational microlensing around the Coma Cluster. This article explains the phenomenon and how the detection supports the presence of dark matter throughout the cosmic web.

Simulate the distribution of dark matter within a galaxy

By modifying the dark matter density at different distances from the center of a simulated galaxy, you can plot the resulting orbital speed of stars. Preset data enables you to replicate astrophysicists' work in determining the dark matter concentration that best fits observed structures.

Dark matter's invisible pull shapes galaxies and our understanding of the cosmos

Though it makes up about 25% of the universe, dark matter can't be seen directly; its existence is inferred through its gravitational effects, like the unexpectedly fast rotation of galaxies. The concept began in 1933 but gained wide acceptance after Vera Rubin's galaxy rotation studies in the 1970s.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

View the composition of the universe, dominated by dark energy and dark matter

About 95% of the observable universe is made of substances whose composition is unknown, but most of what remains (4%) is in the form of clouds of hydrogen and helium, followed by gases and plasma within stars (0.5%) and neutrinos created in nuclear reactions (0.3%).

Astronomical models suggest dark matter must be 'cold,' or slow-moving

Theories for what constitutes dark matter have ranged from slow, planet-sized objects to light subatomic particles that travel at high speeds. However, fast-moving candidates would quickly spread across the universe, preventing the gradual gathering of visible matter into the galaxies and galaxy clusters seen today through gravity.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

Mapping the universe's 1.3 million quasars

Quasars form the core of active galaxies where supermassive black holes devour unimaginable amounts of matter. You can see a map of all 1.3 million of these objects with this 3D map. It was assembled with data from the Gaia spacecraft and shows how the spread of dark matter across space matches that described by the Cosmic Microwave Background.

The European Space Agency's Euclid telescope maps dark matter

As light rays travel near massive objects in space, their paths can be distorted on their way to Earth, causing objects to appear displaced, magnified, shrunken, or sheared. By simulating these effects for various mass distributions, astronomers can match the distortion to a simulated mass and compare it with the observed visible matter to infer the presence of dark matter.

As of 2025, the best cosmological model of the universe includes dark energy

The Lambda cold dark matter model uses the Greek letter to denote the presence of a cosmological constant version of dark energy, alongside slow-moving dark matter and ordinary visible matter. It can account for the observed distribution of galaxies, the structure of the cosmic microwave background, the acceleration of the universe, and the abundance of hydrogen.

The structure of the Bullet Cluster cannot be explained without dark matter

In gravitational lensing, mass bends spacetime, deflecting passing light rays. Instead of this deflection being strongest near the gas within galaxies, where visible matter is densest, lensing is strongest in front of the collided galaxies. This suggests the presence of clumps of dark matter that were not slowed by friction during impact.

One study suggests that dark matter may have originated from a dark Big Bang

A student-faculty team at Colgate University modeled the event as occurring months after the conventional Big Bang and determined the potential gravitational wave signal that would have been left behind. Future gravitational wave detectors are expected to be sensitive enough to observe this signal, if it exists.

Oscillating matter in the early universe left behind patterns detailing cosmic expansion

As gravity tried to bring matter closer together in the early universe, its high temperature produced an outward pressure that caused it to expand. These competing forces caused matter to vibrate and produce the equivalent of sound waves, which spread outward as the universe expanded and cooled, serving as relics of dark energy's history.

Dark stars are hypothetical stars that would have existed in the early universe

Primarily composed of visible matter, this celestial object would also contain a significant amount of dark matter that would annihilate with itself, converting its mass into energy. This energy would prevent the star from collapsing under its own gravity and from triggering nuclear fusion until its dark matter fuel was exhausted.

Our solar system is currently traveling through a 'dark matter hurricane'

The phenomenon refers to a stream of cosmic debris, including stars and dark matter, leftover from a small galaxy that passed too close to the Milky Way and was torn apart. There are over 30 such streams known in our galaxy, and the stream intersecting the solar system is predicted to continue to do so for millions of years.

The cosmic dark ages: before stars existed

The theories behind the Big Bang suggest the process of the universe beginning to the creation of stable, neutral atoms took just half a million years. But the transition from such atoms to star formation took surprisingly much longer, upwards of 100 million years. Why? This deep dive explores the science behind the unique physical composition of the so-called cosmic dark ages.

If dark energy is weakening, the universe may collapse under its own gravity

Scientists using the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) analyzed light from 15 million galaxies and quasars to identify that the universe's accelerated expansion is diminishing. If this continues, the universe might reverse course and collapse in as little as 20 billion years.

Webb discovers galaxy that formed 280 million years after the Big Bang

The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a galaxy that formed just 280 million years after the Big Bang. It is another in a series of increasingly ancient galaxies that, according to current formation models, should not have been able to form so quickly after the birth of the universe.

Cloud 9 is a dark-matter-dominated failed galaxy

Identified in 2023, the starless, gas-rich object is the first of its kind seen by astronomers and provides a window into the early stages of galactic formation without observations relying on visible matter as a proxy. The existence of such REHLICs, or Reionization-Limited-H I Clouds, was predicted by cold dark matter cosmological models.

Scientists are experimenting with ways to probe the multiverse theory

Researchers are simulating vacuum bubbles—the theorized starting points of universes—using quantum computers, digital models, and exotic lab setups to study how they form, expand, and possibly collide. One experiment aims to "blow" artificial universe-like bubbles inside ultra-cold quantum gases, potentially capturing real-time glimpses of cosmic birth processes in a lab.

View maps of the Milky Way across all wavelengths of light

By combining imaging from ground- and space-based telescopes designed to capture specific wavelengths of light, phenomena across a range of energies can be observed. If limited to a single frequency range, astronomers would not be aware of some cosmological events, such as those whose visible light is blocked by dust.

A cup of coffee on Earth contains about 100 proton masses worth of dark matter

The estimate is based on Earth's location within the Milky Way and the dark matter cloud it resides in. Because scientists do not know the nature of dark matter, the mass may be accounted for with any number of dark matter particles of varying mass.

Fly through the deepest image of space ever taken by the Hubble Space Telescope

Taken over 11 days between 2003 and 2004, when the space telescope was aimed at a seemingly empty patch of the sky, the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field revealed about 10,000 sources of light, most of which are entire galaxies. This visualization expands the 2D image into a 3D view spanning 12 billion years.

Explore our favorite visualization of the immense scale of space, from an astronaut to the size of the observable universe

View an infographic of the Standard Model

Much like this visualization, the theory serves to catalog almost all phenomena involving visible matter comprehensively, including organizing observed elementary particles by shared characteristics and explaining most fundamental forces and quantum properties.

The trajectory of particles in bubble chambers reveals their properties

The presence of magnetic fields produces spiraling paths in charged particles as they move across the field, with faster and more massive particles moving in wider turns. Gaps in the trails indicate the presence of short-lived particles that are undetectable until they decay.

Watch a simulation of a collapsing star becoming a black hole

When a massive star can no longer release enough energy through fusion in its core to fight off gravitational collapse, the dense core collapses first, producing an event horizon that traps light within it, including some light produced within the star at the time of collapse. As more material falls into the growing event horizon, the star will appear to eclipse itself from the inside.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.

All rainbows are 'raincircles' caused by water droplets separating white sunlight into a spectrum of colors, but Earth's surface blocks the bottom half of the circle from our line of sight.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

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