What is Gravitational Lensing? #darkmatter #science #viral #shorts #nasa

Dark matter is a mysterious and invisible substance that makes up a significant portion of the universe's mass. It does not interact with light or other forms of electromagnetic radiation, which is why it is called "dark." Despite being undetectable through conventional means, scientists infer its existence from its gravitational effects on visible matter, such as galaxies and galaxy clusters.

Here are some key points about dark matter:

Invisible and Undetectable: Dark matter does not emit, absorb, or reflect light, making it virtually impossible to observe directly with telescopes or any other electromagnetic detectors.

Gravitational Influence: The presence of dark matter is inferred from its gravitational effects on the motion of galaxies and the large-scale structure of the universe. Galaxies rotate faster than they should based on the visible matter alone, and galaxy clusters have more mass than can be accounted for by the visible galaxies within them. Dark matter is believed to provide the additional gravitational pull needed to explain these observations.

Composition: Despite being invisible, dark matter is thought to be made up of some unknown particle or particles that do not belong to the Standard Model of particle physics, which describes the known particles in the universe. Various theoretical candidates for dark matter particles have been proposed, but none have been definitively confirmed.

Abundance: Dark matter is estimated to make up approximately 27% of the total mass-energy content of the universe, while visible matter (stars, planets, galaxies, and all the objects we can see) accounts for only about 5%. The remaining 68% is attributed to dark energy, which is responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe.

Role in Cosmic Structure Formation: Dark matter played a crucial role in the formation of the large-scale structure of the universe. It provided the gravitational scaffolding upon which galaxies and galaxy clusters formed over billions of years.

Ongoing Research: Scientists are actively conducting experiments and observations to try to detect and understand dark matter better. These efforts include experiments in deep underground laboratories and the study of gravitational lensing, which occurs when the gravitational field of dark matter bends and distorts the light from distant objects.

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#WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles)
#DMTheory (Dark Matter Theory)