By A. Mayura Athukorala, JadeTimes News
Dark Matter, The Hidden Mass
Dark matter is a special kind of "stuff" that we can't see, but we know it's there because it makes galaxies move in ways we can't explain with just the stars and planets we can see. Scientists measure how fast things move around galaxies to figure out how much dark matter there is. Even though we can't see it, dark matter is very important because it helps hold galaxies together. Some people even think of dark matter in a philosophical way, wondering if it could be some kind of invisible force or even a manifestation of what we might call "gods." Recent discoveries, such as those from NASA’s WMAP satellite, show that only a tiny part of the universe is made of the stuff we can see, like stars and planets, while the vast majority of it remains invisible to us, much like dark matter.
The Invisible Dark Energy
Dark energy is another mysterious force that, unlike dark matter, pushes the universe to expand faster and faster. Think of dark energy as a sort of invisible wind blowing the universe bigger and bigger. While dark matter pulls things together to make galaxies and stars, dark energy pushes space apart, making the universe grow larger all the time. These two forces are very different, but both are important to understanding how our universe works. Some people even think about dark energy in a philosophical way, wondering if it could be a kind of invisible force or even a manifestation of what some might call a "god."
The Search for Invisible Universe
Scientists think dark matter might be made of special particles that we haven't found yet. These particles are very heavy and don't interact much with the stuff we can see. They're a bit like neutrinos, which are tiny particles that are also very hard to detect. Dark matter is important for creating big structures in the universe, like galaxies and clusters of galaxies. It's not just far away in space, it's all around us, even in our own galaxy. Scientists hope to find more clues about dark matter as our solar system moves through a sea of these particles. They even think we might see changes at different times of the year as Earth moves through this sea.
Comments