In the 1930s, astronomers discovered a strange phenomenon when observing the motion of stars at the edge of galaxies. According to the calculations, they found that the gravity generated by the galaxy itself was not enough to pull the stars on the edge to run stably. The stars on the edge should have been thrown out, but in fact they were not thrown out.
If the gravity generated by ordinary matter is not enough to pull the stars on the edge to operate normally, it means that there must be some kind of force pulling the stars secretly. Astronomers do not know what kind of matter it is, so they gave this matter a name: dark matter . After that, scientists studied in depth and found that dark matter seemed to be everywhere, and they bonded with ordinary matter like glue.
Scientists even used supercomputers to simulate galaxy models. During the simulation, they found that galaxies cannot gather together and operate perfectly like in reality, and will always fall apart. And when scientists add dark matter to it, the galaxy runs perfectly!
Nearly a hundred years have passed, and scientists still do not know what dark matter is. It seems to be right next to you and me, everywhere, but humans do not know it at all.
But one thing is certain, that is, dark matter is essentially different from the ordinary matter we see every day. We cannot directly observe the existence of dark matter by any means, but it is there, like a ghost, and can even easily pass through you and me, and we have no idea about it!
However, through detailed calculations, scientists calculated the content of dark matter. Dark matter fills the entire universe, at least 5 times more than ordinary matter. The importance of dark matter cannot be ignored. Without dark matter, the entire universe would fall apart and it would definitely not work perfectly like today.
Although we cannot directly observe dark matter, the existence of dark matter can be determined indirectly. In addition to the "abnormal" operation of stars at the edge of galaxy, scientists can also determine the existence of dark matter through a "gravity lens".
Gravitational lens, to put it bluntly, when light passes through a galaxy with a large amount of dark matter, the direction of movement will deviate under the action of strong gravity. This is the action of dark matter.
Under the action of dark matter, galaxies seem to be twisted or stretched. By the degree of distortion, scientists can calculate the content of dark matter.
Every day when we open our eyes, we see the material world. For a long time, we thought that matter is the master of the world, but in fact, this is not the case. Dark matter is the master of the universe!
