Christina James, Staff Writer
One of the biggest mysteries constantly identified by man has been the universe – and how it was created. And although many factors affect this, the entire fundamental structure of the universe depends on one of the most elusive substances in the universe: dark matter.
Of all the matter in the universe, it is expected that eighty five percent of it is made up of Dark matter and dark energy. However, the entire concept of dark matter has been debated ever since 1933. The particle is very inactive, but is greatly affected by gravity. This almost completely elusive particle has avoided direct detection by all scientists. It is clear however, that something is there. Without the gravitational pull that the dark matter provides, the universe would not have been structured that way that it currently is. It is clear that without this dark matter, earth would not be able to sustain life, for the position of the planets is also reliant on dark matter.
Despite its elusive nature, the European Leicester space station revealed an unusual indication in an X-Ray emission, and believes that this could be the first factual proof. These two emissions were being received from the Andromeda galaxy and the Perseus galaxy cluster. The conclusion that was prepared believed that since the spikes in the signal did not correspond to any known particle, that it was a direct indication of dark matter. Regardless of this historical find, many scientists believe that the extent of the research that has already been done does not prove the matter’s existence. These scientists also believe that the existence needs to be proven through multiple detection trials before its presence can be deemed.
NHS Astronomy teacher, Mr. Dyer responded to this announcement and agreed to the magnitude of importance concerning this subject saying, “Dark matter directly affects our lives, without it we wouldn't be here. It is thought to be the glue that holds galaxies together, which has shaped our Universe since the beginning of time. What is meant by this is that dark matter has such a large gravitational pull, and with it making up roughly 80% of our Universe, it is the main contributor to the landscape of the Universe. Yes, most of the material in the Universe is not visible to the human eye (we can only see a tiny fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum), but due to gravitational lensing (the distorting of an image due to the pull of gravity) we are able to locate areas where there is an abundance of this material. With the information that has already been discovered about dark matter scientists are very optimistic that they will soon be able to create a dark matter telescope and get even closer to solving the puzzle that is our Universe.”
Overall, this discovery could be the first link in a chain of detections that can eventually lead to uncovering the true way of how the universe formed, and how it will continue to change, with this new found variable.
Photo Credit; www.slate.com