A group of researchers from the University of California, Irvine Department of Physics and Astronomy have used computer simulations to show that features observed in real galaxies are difficult to explain without dark matter.
This supports the existence of dark matter as a leading model for describing the universe. The group published their findings in the Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Dark matter is a mysterious substance that scientists believe makes up most of the mass of the universe. Despite its abundance, dark matter does not interact with light, making it very difficult to detect.
In their research, the scientists modeled two different forms of matter: ordinary matter, which makes up everything we can see and touch, and dark matter. They found that just adding dark matter to the model could explain the strange features observed in the motion of stars and gas in real galaxies.
These features are difficult to explain without taking into account the influence of dark matter, scientists say.
“The galaxy features the team found would be expected to appear in a universe with dark matter, but would be difficult to explain in a universe without dark matter; we show that such features appear in observations of many real galaxies,” said Francisco Mercado, lead author, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine.
“Taken at face value, these data reaffirm the dark matter model’s position as the one that best describes the universe we live in.”
Another group of researchers, who were previously skeptical about the existence of dark matter, confirmed the results of their colleagues’ work.
Existing hypotheses suggest that dark matter could account for up to 85% of the total mass of the universe. However, because it does not interact with light, it has not yet been detected by physical methods.
A new study provides indirect evidence for the existence of dark matter. Scientists hope their work will pave the way for direct detection of this mysterious substance.
