what can you folks tell me about dark matter?

Question

links would be welcomed as well. whoever has the most info gets the no-prize. i have to get some research done and if i stare at this computer any longer my eyes are gonna melt

Answer 1

Dark matter is, at this point, theoretical since it's yet to be observed or proven to actually exist. It's theorized to exist in order to account for the gravity holding galaxies and the universe together, since the measurable matter we've found does not have significant mass to account for this effect.Last August scientists thought they had discovered clouds of dark matter when the Bullet Cluster galaxies collided.

New theories of modified gravity dispute the existence of dark matter, instead proposing that gravity itself alters throughout the universe to hold it together, rather than relying on undetectable matter.

Both theories are speculative at this point, though dark matter seems to be the popular choice in the scientific community at this point.

Answer 2

outerspace is uncharted territory no matter what they told you about Columbus

for the most part WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT DARK MATTER IS.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050223_dark_galaxy.html

Answer 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter
http://astro.berkeley.edu/~mwhite/darkmatter/dm.html

Basically, Dark Matter has not been observed, but we know it is there because we detect huge amounts of matter where nothing can be seen.