Modern Australian

Why do astronomers believe in dark matter?

  • Written by Michael J. I. Brown, Associate professor in astronomy, Monash University
Why do astronomers believe in dark matter?The universe is home to a dizzying number of stars and planets. But the vast bulk of the universe is thought to be invisible dark matter.Illustris Collaboration, CC BY-NC

Dark matter, by its very nature, is unseen. We cannot observe it with telescopes, and nor have particle physicists had any luck detecting it via experiments.

So why do I and...