Question: What is dark matter?

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  1. It’s a type of matter that seems to interact with other matter by gravity, but we have no other way of detecting it (currently). It was proposed to exist as galaxies rotate much faster than they should just by adding up the mass that we can see. There is now some good evidence that it exists – and is thought to make up about 25% of the universe. The bit we can see is only about 4% – the rest is taken up by something called dark energy that is causing the universe to expand increasingly rapidly!

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  2. We don’t really know what dark matter is. As Matthew said, we know that galaxies rotate faster than they should given the amount of mass we can see. So either we really don’t understand gravity (unlikely) or there is more matter out there that we simply can’t see. There are other observations that suggest that it’s the latter, and some people have even claimed to have seen dark matter. (Although those observations didn’t really give a clue as to what it is!)

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  3. One for the physic/spaces boys. Yet again they have covered to very well! I’m learning lots even just today!

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  4. I like Matthew & Simon’s answers

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