Dark Matter

3 Pages 798 Words

There is perhaps no current problem of greater importance to astrophysics and cosmology than that of "dark matter". The controversy, as the name implies, is centered on the notion that there may exist an enormous amount of matter in the Universe that cannot be detected from the light that it emits. The evidence of dark matter is from the motions of astronomical objects, specifically stellar, galactic, and galaxy cluster/super cluster observations.
The basic argument is that if we measure velocities in some region, then there has to be enough mass there for gravity to stop all the objects from flying apart. When such velocity measurements are done on large scales, it turns out that the amount of inferred mass is much more than can be explained by the luminous mass. Hence we infer that there is non-luminous matter in the Universe, i.e. there is dark matter.
Dark matter has important consequences for the evolution of the Universe. According to standard cosmological theory, the Universe must conform to one of three possible types: open, flat, or closed. A parameter known as the "mass density" - that is, how much matter per unit volume is contained in the Universe - determines which of the three possibilities applies to the Universe. In the case of an open Universe, the mass density is less than unity, and the Universe is predicted to expand forever. If the Universe is closed the Universe will eventually stop its expansion and re-collapse back upon itself. For the case where the universe is exactly equal to one, the Universe is delicately balanced between the two states, and is said to be "flat".
Dark matter candidates are usually split into two broad categories, with the second category being further sub-divided: baryonic and bon-baryonic. Then, under non-baryonic, hot dark matter (HDM) and cold dark matter (CDM) are its types. Depending on their respective masses and speeds, CDM candidates have relatively large mass and travel at ...