Dark matter is not a hypothetical substance but is real and is a fundamental building block of the universe, according to a shocking new study.
Astrophysicists estimate dark matter accounts for 85 percent to 90 percent of all the matter in the known universe. Scientists, however, have mostly been unable to detect the mystery material because its weak interactions with the electromagnetic force are intangible at best. Instead, astrophysicists have only been able to infer its existence from the gravitational effects it appears to have on normal matter. As a result, dark matter is considered a hypothetical substance likely built from a form of undiscovered subatomic particles.
This has recently led some scientists to question whether the substance exists and whether it will ever be discovered.
A new study published in The Astrophysical Journal, led by the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), has sought to dispel the doubt surrounding dark matter.
Chiara Di Paolo, a doctoral student of astrophysics at SISSA, said: “Three years ago, a few colleagues of the Case Western Reserve University strongly questioned our understanding of the universe and the in-depth work of many researchers, casting doubt on the existence of dark matter in the galaxies.
“Analysing the rotation curves of 153 galaxies, principally the ‘classical’ spiral kind, they obtained an empirical relationship between total gravitational acceleration of the stars, observed, and the component which we would observe in the presence of sole ordinary matter in the classical Newtonian theory.
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