DARK MATTER

The Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky first used the term "dark matter" in the 1930s. He studied the so-called Coma galaxy cluster and, specifically, how fast it revolves. Clusters are like merry-go-rounds: Their speed of revolution depends on the weight and position of the objects in the clusters, like the weight of the objects and their positions on a merry-go-round. The speed he measured implied the cluster had much more mass than the observable light suggested.  In the 1970s, U.S. astronomer Vera Rubin and her colleagues confirmed this result by studying galaxy rotation. They also discovered single galaxies, not just clusters, have more mass than their observable light suggested. The work of Rubin and her team helped to firmly establish the notion of dark matter. In many ways, scientists know more about what dark matter is not, though they do have a few ideas about what it could be.

Vera Rubin was the only woman to graduate in astronomy at Vassar College in 1948. She found the first evidence of the existence of dark matter.
















The Greeks had a simple and elegant formula for the universe: just earth, fire, wind, and water. Turns out there's more to it than that -- a lot more. Visible matter (and that goes beyond the four Greek elements) comprises only 4% of the universe.

CERN scientist James Gillies tells us what accounts for the remaining 96% (dark matter and dark energy) and how we might go about detecting it.








Scientists are still working on theories that might help explain what the vast majority of our universe is made of.
















These three amazing women astronomers - Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and Vera Rubin - changed the way we see the universe. Astrophysicist Jo Dunkley explains what she learnt from them.

1 of 4: VERA RUBIN AND DARK MATTER

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2 of 4:  DARK MATTER: THE MATTER WE CAN'T SEE

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3 of 4: What We (Don't) Know About Dark Matter

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4 of 4: WOMEN WHO CHANGED HOW WE SEE THE UNIVERSE

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