Dark matter may be one of many hidden particles that don't interact with light

Dark matter's limited force interactions make its detection difficult

Despite making up the vast majority of matter in the universe, dark matter can only be directed indirectly via its influence on other objects through gravity, the weakest of the fundamental forces. This means direct detection of dark matter may only be possible with future, more sensitive instruments.

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.

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.

Axions, a hypothetical subatomic particle, are a leading dark matter candidate

Among the possibilities for what makes up dark matter, some physicists champion axions, which could clump into galaxy-scale quantum states. These states would act as massive, unified superparticles that could explain the observational evidence for the universe's missing matter.

It may be possible to create dark matter in particle accelerators

In high-energy collisions, exotic forms of matter can be produced by directly converting energy into mass according to *E = mc*². Even though a dark matter particle would not be directly observable, its creation would result in unaccounted-for mass, which can be compared to potential dark matter candidates for indirect detection.

Dark matter and dark energy, explained

What is dark energy? What is dark matter? Well, if we knew exactly, we would have a Nobel prize—we know that they exist, though. Scientists have theorized that the former may be a property of three-dimensional space itself, while the latter could be exotic particles that interact with almost nothing. This video from Kurzgesagt explains what we know and what we don't.

The Standard Model predicts massless particles we have observed to have mass

Neutrinos—elusive cousins of the electron that rarely interact with other matter—have been observed to transform into one another, which can only occur if they have mass. The theory also cannot explain why the universe has much more antimatter than normal matter.

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.

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.

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.

As of 2025, LUX-ZEPLIN is the world's most sensitive dark matter experiment

The experiment is designed to indirectly detect WIMPs—weakly interacting massive particles and a candidate for what dark matter is made of—by looking for light produced when they collide with xenon atoms. Such collisions would also release electrons, which are then manipulated to produce a secondary light signal that helps rule out background effects.

Mars' orbit may provide evidence that dark matter is made of primordial black holes

Physicists at MIT have found that, statistically, one such microscopic black hole should pass through the solar system every decade, which they predict would introduce a detectable wobble in Mars' orbit. Such black holes would have formed in the early universe from collapsing gas clouds and scattered as the universe expanded.

New model replaces the Milky Way's central black hole with dark matter

A study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society states that a dense core of fermionic dark matter, rather than a supermassive black hole, could explain both the rapid orbits of stars near the Milky Way's center and the galaxy's large-scale rotation detected in Gaia mission data.

The graviton may be the last missing piece of the Standard Model

While the electromagnetic, strong nuclear, and weak nuclear forces can be explained through interactions with particles, gravity is instead best modeled through spacetime curvature. Discovering a quantum particle of gravity would unite the two pillars of modern physics—quantum mechanics and general relativity—toward developing a theory of everything.

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

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.

Modified Newtonian dynamics revises gravity to eliminate the need for dark matter

Rather than imagining that an undiscovered particle is responsible for discrepancies in the orbits of stars and galaxies, MOND suggests that the mathematics underlying Newton's laws of gravity and force change beyond a certain scale. However, the suggested revisions struggle to explain relativistic effects involving gravity, including gravitational lensing and gravitational waves.

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

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.

Quantum field theory reveals that particles are ripples in universal fields

Instead of being made of indivisible particles, all visible matter in the universe is built from underlying quantum fields—smooth, invisible entities that behave like waves. The theory suggests these fields are fundamental, and particles are disturbances that move through them.

Attempts to 'fix' black hole physics have led scientists to theorize new types

Along with their spin and charge, mass is used to categorize black holes as supermassive, intermediate, or stellar-mass. However, ongoing research suggests various additional types may exist, including primordials that formed one second into the universe's birth, fuzzballs—tangles of vibrating strings—and gravastars, which have a shell of dense matter around repulsive vacuum energy.

The most mysterious (known) star in the universe

Something massive, with roughly 1,000 times the area of Earth, is blocking the light coming from a distant star known as KIC 8462852. One of astronomers' more intriguing theories: Alien technology. Discovered via NASA's Kepler space telescope and a...

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.

Wormholes, though unstable, would offer a theoretical shortcut through spacetime

These hypothetical distortions in the fabric of spacetime may connect vast distances across or even between universes. While science fiction often portrays them as traversable tunnels, the energy and matter required to keep a wormhole open defy current physical understanding.

Delays in the decay of unstable particles provide evidence for time dilation

Physicists used the muon half-life measured in labs to predict how many should reach detectors on Earth's surface after their production in collisions between atmospheric molecules and cosmic rays. Higher detection rates were consistent with a longer half-life due to slower movement through time.

Particle detection has evolved from cloud and bubble chambers to digital 3D displays

As invisible particles passed through cloud and bubble chambers, they disrupted supersaturated vapor and superheated liquid, respectively, creating trails that served as proxies for cosmic rays. The transition from photographed events to digital sensors enhanced data collection and accuracy.

Cosmic rays are high-energy particles from outside the solar system

Trillions of these particles moving close to the speed of light hit Earth daily, with some originating from beyond our galaxy. While the planet’s magnetic field blocks most, some collide with atoms in the atmosphere, producing cascades of exotic secondary particles.

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.

Neutron stars, the remains of some massive stars after they explode in a supernova, are the densest directly observable objects in the universe.

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.

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.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

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