Dark Matter (awareness)

Dark matter is the name given to an unseen form of matter proposed to help explain gravitational effects observed in galaxies and larger cosmic structures. It is called dark because it does not appear to emit or reflect enough electromagnetic radiation for us to detect it directly using ordinary light.

Evidence includes observations such as: speeds of stars in galaxies; motion of galaxies in clusters; gravitational lensing; large-scale structure of the universe. Visible matter alone does not appear sufficient to explain all these gravitational observations.

Dark matter is not simply ordinary matter hidden in darkness. Its exact microscopic nature remains an open scientific question.

Dark matter is studied through its apparent gravitational effects. Scientists continue testing different models and possible particle candidates.