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.
Related Topics: The Big Bang Theory, Black Holes, The Theory of Relativity in Space, Gravitational Waves
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Latest about dark matter
Scientist image 3-million-light-year-long 'cosmic web' ensnaring 2 galaxies for 1st time
Astronomers have been able to image gas as it travels down a 3 million light-year-long cosmic highway between two growing galaxies ensnared in the cosmic web.
Euclid 'dark universe' telescope discovers stunning Einstein ring in warped space-time (image)
The "dark universe detective" space telescope Euclid has discovered its first Einstein ring in the process, learning about dark matter at the heart of a distant galaxy.
Scientists find hints of the dark universe in 3D maps of the cosmos
Computer algorithms can model the universe, matching simulations to observations and revealing the distribution of dark matter.
What are boson stars — and what do they have to do with dark matter?
The skies may be full of invisible "boson stars" that could have a connection to dark matter.
Hubble tension is now in our cosmic backyard, sending cosmology into crisis
Measurements of the distance to the Coma Cluster of galaxies find that it is millions of light years closer than the standard model predicts.
'Heavy' dark matter would rip our understanding of the universe apart, new research suggests
Dark matter can't be too heavy or it might break our best model of the universe, new research suggests.
Astronauts repair black hole observatory, inspect cosmic ray detector on ISS spacewalk
NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Suni Williams completed a six-hour spacewalk to repair and upgrade equipment outside the International Space Station on Thursday (Jan. 16).
Dark matter may have caused a baffling break in this star stream
A strange break in a stream of stars in the Milky Way could be the result of dark matter, but only if the dark matter is hot and self-interacting.
