Dark Matter

space · gravity · mystery

Invisible but real. Dark matter doesn't give off light or reflect it, so telescopes can't see it directly. But scientists know it's there because they can see how its gravity affects things we can observe, like stars and galaxies.

Gravity's fingerprints. Dark matter reveals itself through its gravitational pull. Galaxies spin too fast and move in ways that only make sense if there's way more matter around them than we can actually see.

The cosmic web. After the Big Bang, dark matter clumped together to form invisible scaffolding, like a giant framework that holds galaxies in place. Galaxies formed along these dark matter filaments, creating a web-like structure across the whole universe.

Most of the universe. Dark matter makes up the majority of all matter in the cosmos. Even though we can't see it, there's way more dark matter than all the regular stuff we can see, like planets, stars, and light.

Still a mystery. Scientists don't know exactly what dark matter is made of yet. It's one of the biggest unsolved puzzles in astronomy, and researchers around the world are working hard to figure it out.