(need to be determined) - Essay Example

What is a Dark Matter? About 80% of the universe mass constitutes materials that the scientists cannot observe directly. This unobservable mass is referred to as the dark matter (Bertine 2010). The ingredient does not emit any kind of energy or light. The scientists think that the dark matter dominates. The 1950s study of the other galaxies first showed that the universe was composed of more dark matter than the naked eye could see. In the recent years, there has been improvement in the science of study of the dark matter (Spooner and Kudryavtsev 2001).

However, note that there is still no strong/ solid evidence to demonstrate detection of dark matter. Image: Dark matter ring captured by NASA through a Hubble space telescope in the galaxy Some familiar materials that exist in the universe, they are made of neutrons, protons and electron and these materials are called the baryonic matter. The dark matter can either be made of non-baryonic matter or baryonic matter. To hold the universe elements together, the dark matter has to consist of about 80% of the matter (Bahcall et al. 2004). Proving the UnseenOne interest thing about the dark matter is that the scientists cannot see it.

Then how do they know it exists in the first place? Scientists have learned to calculate the mass any huge object’s in the space through the study of their movement. In the 1950s when some scientists were examining spiral galaxies, they expected to witness the materials at the center to be moving fast as compared to those on the outside (Spooner and Kudryavtsev 2001). Against their expectations, the scientists discovered that the stars that were in the same position were traveling at a similar velocity.

The results indicated that the galaxies are made of a lot of mass that cannot be seen. The elliptical galaxies studies further indicated that visible objects had more mass. Albert Einstein proved that huge objects in the space bend light and distorted it, making them be used as lenses. Through the study of light distortion in the universe, the scientists have been able to create dark matter maps in the universe (Bertine 2010). Spiral Galaxies Dark MatterThe gravitational mass can be derived from the observation of movement of the gas clouds and the stars motion is the disk as the spiral galaxy (for example the Milky way) in the disk as they circle the center (Rubin 1997).

The galaxy rotation curve reveals how the speed of the stars around the center as the gap from the center increases. The majority of the spiral galaxies are known to reveal flat rotational curves out in the longest distance they can be traced, even after they disappear into the distance. It is, therefore, reasonable to conclude that the gravitational mass is 10 times in term of mass as compared to the luminous mass.Clusters of Galaxies Dark MatterThe gravitational mass can be derived from the clusters of galaxies by measuring the orbital movements of the member galaxies.

Since the clusters have galaxies being approximately the same distance from the scientists, it is possible to interpret any kind of spread in the galaxies redshifts as the orbital movements around the center of the cluster (this may go to as high as 1000 km/sec) (Sanders 2010). Through the measure of a many galaxies as possible in the cluster, it is possible to calculate the gravitational mass required to maintain the galaxies in the orbits instead of going away from the circle. The resultant gravitational mass can then be compared to the luminous mass that comes from the galaxies in addition to the mass contributed by the X-ray gas (Bahcall et al. 2004).The science of black matter has come from nowhere in the early days of 1950s and at least it is headed to certainty.

Powerful equipment aimed at space study promises a detailed study of the hidden matter. NASA’s contributions have specifically been fruitful in understanding the dark matter. With more studies deployed on the cluster and spiral galaxies, supported by Albert Einstein theories and it is certain that the dark matter will come to understood in a broader aspect.ReferenceBahcall J.N., Piran T., and Weinberg S. (2004). Dark Matter in the Universe. WorldScientific Publishers.Bertine G. (2010). Particle Dark Matter: Observations, Models and Searches.

CambridgeUniversity Press.Rubin V.C. (1997). Bright Galaxies, Dark Matters. Springer Science and Business Media.Sanders R.H. (2010). The Dark Matter Problem: A Historical Perspective. CambridgePress University.Spooner N.J., and Kudryavtsev V. (2001). The Identification of Dark Matter: Proceedingsof the Third International Workshop on “The Identification of Dark Matter.” World Scientific Publishers