Dark Matter

Roughly 80 percent of the mass of the universe appears to be dark matter: an invisible material that seems to interact with ordinary matter only through gravity, without emitting light or energy. Scientists cannot detect dark matter directly and don't yet know what it's made of, but they track its influence based on the motions of stars and galaxies. The presence of dark matter is necessary to explain the universe's current structure.

Latest Updates

An artist's impression of a gaseous exoplanet

Dark matter could be destroying itself inside the bellies of exoplanets

By Adam Mann

Researchers propose learning more about dark matter by looking for its effects inside exoplanets.

Dark matter 'annihilation' may be causing the Milky Way's center to glow

By Mara Johnson-Groh

A new study suggests that annihilating dark matter particles may explain the Milky Way center's mysterious glow.

Dark matter could be made of black holes from the beginning of time

By Tom Metcalfe

Evidence of collisions between black holes and neutron stars suggests dark matter might consist of concentrations of primordial black holes.

The radio jellyfish is more than 1 million light-years wide.

Astronomers see a ghostly 'radio jellyfish' rise from the dead in the southern sky

By Brandon Specktor

Astronomers discovered a radio structure that looks like a gigantic jellyfish, though it only glows in certain wavelengths.

"The Disordered Cosmos" by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

In 'The Disordered Cosmos,' a physicist explores how physics and society intersect

By Meghan Bartels

Theoretical physics is supposed to be about pure, crisp ideas. But physics is done by humans, and human society brings messiness to any endeavor.

Book excerpt: 'The Disordered Cosmos'

By Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

In theoretical physics, as in all human endeavors, identity matters.

The galaxy cluster Abell 383 (at the center of this image) is so massive that it bends the light from objects behind it, acting as a cosmic magnifying glass.

The search for dark matter gets a speed boost from quantum technology

By Benjamin Brubaker

Nearly a century after dark matter was first proposed to explain the motion of galaxy clusters, physicists still have no idea what it’s made of.

The spiral galaxy NGC 5585, which is nestled on the tail of the Great Bear in the constellation of Ursa Major, is one of many that have revealed the presence of an invisible substance called dark matter.

Scientists narrow down the 'weight' of dark matter trillions of trillions of times

By Tom Metcalfe

Scientists are finally figuring out how much dark matter — the almost imperceptible material said to tug on everything, yet emit no light — really weighs.

Researchers used pulsars shown in the inset to calculate dark matter's affect on how stars move within the Milky Way.

Scientists are getting closer in race to find gravitational wave background and dark matter

By Charles Q. Choi

Astronomers may be getting closer to discovering as-yet hidden cosmic secrets, such as the nature of dark matter and the presence of widespread distortions in space-time.

This graphic shows a map of the universe's expansion rates in different directions, estimated in a recent study by Konstantinos Migkas and collaborators.

Is there more than one dark energy?

By Paul Sutter

What if there is more than one cosmological agent for dark energy? This mixture would have strange effects in our universe, making it potentially detectable with upcoming surveys.

In one galactic year, also known as a cosmic year, the sun orbits the Milky Way.

Physicists search for imprints left by dark matter halos as they swoosh through galactic gas

By Andreea Font

The search for dark matter is at a crossroads. Now, physicists have a new way to tell what the invisible stuff is made of.

Cosmic bubbles may have created dark matter.

Cosmic bubbles may have forged dark matter, new theory suggests

By Tim Childers

New theory suggests cosmic bubbles during the birth of our universe are responsible for creating dark matter.

Artist's illustration of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Using data from TESS, scientists have discovered an "improbable" exoplanet that should've been engulfed by its star but wasn't.

Distant alien planets could be turned into dark matter detectors

By Paul Sutter

A pair of astronomers is advocating a daring new research program: to turn our widening search for life beyond Earth into a hunt for dark matter.

In a new study, researchers determined that matter makes up about 31% of the total amount of matter and energy in the universe. Cosmologists believe about 20% of the total matter is made of regular (or baryonic) matter, which includes stars, galaxies, atoms and life, while about 80% is made of dark matter, whose mysterious nature is not yet known but may consist of some as-yet-undiscovered subatomic particle.

Scientists nail down the total amount of matter in the universe

By Mike Wall

Scientists have conducted a new cosmos-wide matter census, finding that the stuff makes up 31% of our universe.

A Hubble Space Telescope image of MACS J1206, one of the galaxy clusters analyzed in new research, showing light distortions caused by dark matter.

Hubble telescope observations highlight dark matter's weirdness

By Meghan Bartels

Once again, scientists have realized that when it comes to dark matter, they are missing a piece or two of the puzzle.

The complete focal plane of the future LSST Camera is more than 2 feet wide and contains 189 individual sensors that will produce 3,200-megapixel images.

3,200 megapixels! The camera heart of future Vera Rubin Observatory snaps record-breaking 1st photos

By Mike Wall

The imaging sensors for the future Vera C. Rubin Observatory have taken their record-breaking first photos.

A map of the sky shows the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), a remnant of the period of the early universe when this lost dark matter might have existed.

A long-lost type of dark matter may resolve the biggest disagreement in physics

By Rafi Letzter

Right now, key measurements of the universe's expansion are contradicting each other. A lost form of dark matter could help them agree.

A Hubble Space Telescope image shows the Lagoon Nebula, part of the small portion of matter in the Milky Way that isn't made of dark matter.

A huge cloud of invisible particles seems to be missing from the Milky Way

By Rafi Letzter

A key signal for a certain kind of dark matter failed to turn up in a search throughout the Milky Way. Now scientists are disagreeing about what that means.