• Question: what is dark matter?

    Asked by year4acool to Alessandro, Angela, Claudia, Marina, Phil on 19 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by nancyxx.
    • Photo: Marina De Vos

      Marina De Vos answered on 19 Mar 2013:

      Dark matter is a term used for particles that physicists believe are needed to explain the gravitational effect of large bodies in our universe. Our universe is believed to consists of 84% of dark matter. It is does emit or absorb light.

      The concept was first introduced by Jan Oort in 1932 when he studied the Milky way

    • Photo: Phillip Wilkinson

      Phillip Wilkinson answered on 19 Mar 2013:

      We are not entirely sure what dark matter is, hence why its called dark matter. We can’t see or touch it but we know its there and there is allot of it. Enough to make entire galaxies move in ways we don’t expect! We don’t even know entirely how much of it there is, from 70 to 90%. Which is allot considering we have no idea what it is!

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