Dark Matter

By Eera, Kayla, Mady, Stana, Tvisha

Eera - Origins/Inspirations 

 Dark Matter was formed in the hot aftermath of the big bang. The big bang is the leading explanation to how our universe began. Websites say that the most prevalent explanation on what's the origin of dark matter is some as-yet-undiscovered subatomic particle, such as weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) or axions. Some just say that dark matter is just made up of tiny black holes combined. Which is another main possibility.What inspired people to study dark matter? Swiss-American astronomer, Fritz Zwicky was inspired to study dark matter further because he noticed that galaxies in the coma cluster. Which is a large galaxy that contains over 1,000 galaxies. The galaxies in the coma cluster were moving so quickly they should have been flung away into space. But still they remained gravitationally bound to the coma cluster by lots of unseen matter. Therefore more and more people were intrigued to study the concept of dark matter more.

Mady - Key People/Contributions 

Fritz Zwicky is one of the most famous dark matter scientists in astronomy history. He was a pioneer in the study of supernovas, neutron stars, cosmic rays, and dark matter. In the early 1930s, Zwicky noted  that single galaxies were moving too fast for the cluster to remain bound together and that there had to be something holding them together. In 1933, Zwicky discovered dark matter. Dark matter is stuff in space that has gravity, but it is invisible and isn't like anything else we know about. In simple terms, this strange force is a concept, not an object. Moving on, dark matter plays a role in space. A huge contribution from dark matter is that it is responsible for the way galaxies are organized. Without dark matter, our universe would look nothing like the way it does now. There would be no force to keep galaxies, stars, and planets together. Everything would be floating around and crashing into each other. This is because dark matter acts as the invisible skeletal structure that holds up the universe around us.

Kayla - Timeline/Development 

 Dark matter was first discovered in the 1930s as a cluster. In the 1980, most astronomers started to believe in dark matter. After that, several theories were proposed. In 1980, the Hot Dark Matter theory was brought up. This theory refers to particles moving at the speed of light. However, the theory was short-lived and ended in 1984. In 1984, the Cold Dark Matter (CDM) theory was proposed. The Cold Dark Matter theory is still the theory we go by today.  The Cold Dark Matter theory explains the comic structure over a large span of redshift. Over the decades more and more theories and evidence of dark matter was found. In 2010, dark matter particles were discovered. In some theories, dark matter was forged in the scorching aftermath of the Big Bang. Particles and chemicals smashed into each other and produced the dark matter. 

Stana - Relevance in Today’s World: 

Dark matter, as explained earlier, is not a specific object but a hypothetical theory for something we can't see but interacts with other entities through gravity, allowing us to predict its location in space. Today, dark matter holds two key reasons for its societal importance, existing both in the literal and societal worlds. According to multiple sources, dark matter is a vast collection of material scattered throughout space. Its immense gravitational pull acts as an adhesive, binding the universe together and preventing rogue planets that could cause catastrophic collisions, thus safeguarding planets and ensuring humanity's safety. Additionally, dark matter plays a crucial role in society by aiding the development of hypotheses about our world and galaxy. For instance, some scientists theorize that dark matter consists of particles from an earlier stage of our universe, such as axions, neutrinos, or WIMPs. Another speculation suggests that dark matter is composed of ordinary materials like brown dwarfs, black holes, dark galaxies, and various other materials.

Tvisha - Related Topics  

Dark matter is like the ultimate mystery in space! Scientists know it's there because it has this sneaky way of affecting things around it with its gravity. Even though we can't see it, it plays a huge role in how galaxies form and move. Dark matter isn’t actually dark, it's invisible. It applies a gravitational influence on galaxies and galaxy clusters, but it doesn’t emit, absorb, or reflect light, which is why it is invisible even to telescopes, or sensors of any sort. This gravitational effect is called gravitational lensing, which provides an accurate measure of how much mass a cluster has. There’s also something called antimatter, but its not the same thing. Antimatter consists of visible particles called antiprotons and positrons. When antiparticles meet with particles, they cancel out. Obviously, there’s not much antimatter around. Unlike dark matter, antimatter can be made in labs. Dark matter is made of something called WIMPS (weakly interacting massive particles). It's like trying to solve a giant puzzle. It almost makes no sense, but scientists are still working hard to figure out what dark matter really is, and how it fits into the universe.