Can someone explain to me, in layman's terms, dark matter?

Question

I just don't understand this concept. Thanks.

Answer 1

According to Philip Pullman Dark Matter is the infinitely tiny particles that are the dispersed souls of all the concious beings that have ever lived!

Otherwise, I think that that is one of the great mysteries. No one is erally sure what it is.

Answer 2

Dark matter is something that influences its environment by gravitation (like the earth does for us), but we can not, for some reason, see any light (or electromagnetic waves) coming from it.
It was first suggested in the 1930's that such matter existed, and later on many evidence of matter which we cannot "see" added up.
Also, the Big-Bang theory limits the amount of "regular matter" to about a fifth of the total amount of matter there is in the universe, which means that what we miss is something of a different kind.
In the past, some cases of dark matter were actually found to be regular matter, that was discovered by more advanced methods (x-rays etc.)

Answer 3

As we look at the starry sky, we see the entire universe in both space and time. For example, you see the sun where it was 8 minutes ago and remote galaxies, thousand of years ago. But you can only see what is emitting light.
However, the universe expansion that we can observe from the light red-shift, doesn't make much sense considering the little amount of matter we can observe. Therefore the existence of non-visible matter was suggested and the name 'dark matter' came to be. It may be that as much as 85% of the universe consists of matter we don't know anything about. But does it realy exist? We think so because we can see the gravitational effect of it. But plotting that on computers, we can even create images of its shape.

It is 'matter' with a mass and gravitation but it is nothing like the matter we know of. Because even in its simplest form, atoms of hydrogen, 'our' matter at one or another stage, looses particles that can be detected and recognised as such.

Answer 4

Dark matter is the is the term used for the matter that we cannot see by means of light or radio. We can see evidence of dark matter from its gravitational effects (the same theory behind black holes but on a smaller scale)

Answer 5

Dark matter is generally a term which is used to describe all the space lying between heavenly bodies and which cannot be 'seen' or 'observed'. They are invisible and cannot be detected by radio waves. Even i am fascinated by topics such as dark matter and black holes.

Answer 6

It is matter that can not be seen or detected directly. Yet, scientist know it is there because other matter (stars, galaxies ect) respond to it. Meaning a star might be circling something, but it appears there is nothing there. That is dark matter.

Answer 7

Science says that dark matter is abundant, it can't be seen because it absorbs all light, but there should be enough of it to slow down the expansion of the universe.

Answer 8

the inherent property of matter is gravity. The universe is expanding.......and if its not not for the presence of dark matter whose gravity hold galaxies together the rate of expansion would be much higher......the galaxies would be far flung and nothingness would prevail..........darks matter accounts for over 90% of mass of galaxies........since they cannot bounce or reflect light we cannot make direct observations of its presence thro devices which detect light..........but it effect such as gravitational lensing, holding toghether of galxies can be felt.......

Answer 9

Dark matter is matter that up to now has not been seen, it does not reflect light well so it is 'dark'.

Answer 10

Well darks work with defu (LOVE TO MEET YOU"")