In the year 1930, Fritz Zwicky, a Swiss astronomer, found that galaxies are revolving around each other faster than their masses. He presented a hypothesis that an unseen matter or substance might be causing them to move at a fast speed and gravitationally tugging them on the galaxies. The researchers were sure that there is a hidden substance or matter which is six times heavier than the substance from which stars and galaxies are made. Apart from seeing this dark matter all around space, there are still many curiosities and questions related to these dark matter findings in the area of astronomy. Astronauts are scratching their heads to find out the answers to these questions coming in their find. That’s why in our news section, we are going to tell you the hottest happenings related to dark matter by scientists and astronomers. Let’s dive into its explanation. But before getting deep into the curiosities and questions related to dark matter, let us see some brief introduction on dark matter.
What is dark matter?
For most of the time, researchers were unsure about the presence and composition of dark matter. But according to physicist Don Lincoln wrote an article about dark matter in which he stated that it is a kind of missing mass inside the universe made up of black holes and small faint stars. Yet, the detailed observations of scientists have not to tell anything else which is influencing its composition. The leading contender for dark matter composition is a hypothetical substance called WIMP, which stands for Weakly interactive massive particle.
This article is thought to be having properties like neutron and mass heavier than the proton, almost 100 times. But still, it has many causing many questions and curiosities inside scientists about its presence and composition. Let us discuss them.
1. Can you see dark matter?
The biggest question about dark matter is that if it is made from WIMP, why are scientists not finding any evidence? Because although it’s barely detected and invisible, it should be present all around us. Other than this, scientists say that they do not usually interact with the normal particles, but there can be some changes and circumstances in which they may interact with protons or neutrons. For this, many experiments have been done for the ordinary particle’s collisions so that they may give some evidence related to dark matter. Still, in so many years, there are not credible discoveries on its detection. That’s why now the Chinese scientists have given them the title of some particles smaller than WIMP, making them difficult to study and detect.
2. Is dark matter made up of more than one particle?
As we all know, ordinary matter from which all of this world’s material is made constitutes of neutrons, protons, or electrons. That is why scientists think that maybe dark matter is made up of the same complications. It may constitute several particles. However, no such evidence is seen till now, which can prove that dark matter is made up of just one particle or from several particles. It is a kind of unanswered question and unresolved mystery. But scientists are doing their best to find it.
3. What are the properties and characteristics of dark matter?
Astronomers found the presence of dark matter when they did gravitational interaction with the ordinary particles. This interaction led them to think about the presence of dark matter in the universe. But when scientists are trying to find its nature and characteristic of compounds and particles, they are not getting something well. Some theories said that they are made up of their antiparticles. For example, if one particle interacts with the other particle, then they annihilate in their meeting. In the current days, the alpha magnetic spectrometer has detected hundreds of those annihilations. But still, scientists are not coming on solid proof to tell people about its nature and properties of particles.
4. Is dark matter present in every galaxy?
It is one of the biggest questions related to dark matter present in-universe. As we all are familiar with the mass of dark matter that overweighs the ordinary matter, all of the galaxies and galactic clusters are made up of this dark matter. But scientists also say that it is not important to must-have dark matter for the existence of any galaxy. A few years ago, there was a discovery of a galaxy named NGC-1052-DF2. Scientists said that this galaxy does not contain any dark matter but later on, some findings revealed that this measurement was not true. So there is confusion about its presence in all the galaxies.
5. Does dark matter possess an electric charge?
Another important thing to note about dark matter is that it may have an electric charge. A study was done on the heating property of hydrogen in which scientists found that it is really cold compared to the estimated temperature. The astronomers thought that maybe the dark matter charges caused the hydrogen heat to get away. But this supposed statement is yet to be confirmed.
6. Are dark forces existing due to dark matter?
Scientists are working that dark matter is also possessing dark forces like the other ordinary matter is having. To find out this supposition, they are checking the presence of dark photons, as the normal matter photon presence leads to electromagnetic radiations. Italian scientists are checking this hypothesis as they are smashing a beam of electrons and its antiparticles with diamond. If dark forces exist, then a strange kind of force will be generated. But there are no certain results related to this till now.
7. Can dark matter be made up of axions?
Apart from WIMP composition for dark matter, another hypothetical particle for dark matter composition is the axion. Scientists think that maybe dark matter consists of axions because it is highly light in mass. You can say it is 100 times lighter than the proton. So scientists think that axion can be a part of dark matter. And many galaxies can be consisting of axions. Apart from this, they are also thinking that many star-related objects are possessing axions too. But still, this is a suppository statement.
8. Can ordinary particles decay into the dark matter?
Another question related to dark matter is that ordinary particles can make dark matter after decaying up or not. According to their life, the studies have revealed that neutrons can turn up into an electron or a proton after their decay. So scientists were also trying to find that if, after changing certain conditions related to neutrons decay time, they may become able to produce dark matter. But after this experiment, there was no satisfactory evidence related to converting neutron decay into dark matter.
9. Does dark matter exist?
After all the above questions and curiosities about dark matter, scientists think that it exists or that? Because many astronomers and scientists are stating that those forces can affect the galaxies due to the gravitational waves. There might’ve no dark matter or dark forces. But till now, there is no confirm news about the presence of dark matter. We hope that this year will bring clear news on topic of dark matter.
