GAL - Dark Matter LESSON

Dark Matter

Astronomers continued their observations of galaxies and noticed something was off. They calculated the detectable mass in a galaxy and then tried to apply that mass to the motion of the galaxy. In doing this, they came up short. The calculations for mass show that there must be 10 times the mass we know of and that this must be distributed in a sphere that extends beyond the edge of the galaxy. They called this dark matter. The only way we can currently detect dark matter is due to its gravitational force.

The image above shows the breakdown of dark matter, dark energy, gas, and stars in the universe.

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