Rarely in the field of science is something that cannot be observed regularly believed in. But this is the case often with so called Dark Matter, which cannot be directly observed by scientists, but whose gravitational pull on galaxies suggest it may make up a staggering 20% of the universe’s energy. This would mean in effect that the gravity from this type of matter far outweighs all other matter we have. And now some scientists have stepped forward saying it doesn’t exist at all.
The find, if proven or debunked either way would carry with it a considerable amount of weight whose perturbations would be observed throughout the realm of physics and possibly either bring us one step closer to finding a truly accurate image of what the universe around us looks and works like, or it could show us just how little we truly know.
Evidence of Dark Matter first appeared in 1933 when Fritz Zwicky first observed through mathematical equations and observations that there was something out there causing a gravitational pull that could not otherwise be observed. As he looked into the findings he discovered that there must be more mass than is observable in the universe by current means. After this finding further evidence came about to support this theory. Then in the 1970’s a study performed by Carnegie Institution of Washington’s team led by Vera Rubin observed that light interacted with this matter in a way suggesting there was something out there that absorbed light. The case for dark energy was even more solid. And yet there were still massive gaps in a unified theory of something we couldn’t see. There was no way of overlooking the fact that the dark matter didn’t have a direct way of looking at dark matter to see what it really looked like.
In addition, there is the claim that dark matter has a cousin that makes up even more of the universe. If Dark matter exists as 22% of the known universe, dark energy is estimated to make up an additional 74% of the universe’s total composition. And if that is the case, then the 3.6% of the universe making up interstellar gasses leaves only a paltry 0.4 percent of the universe’s total energy made up of suns and planets, only an extremely small fraction of which actually is comprised of planets.
So is there evidence that 96% of the universe may not actually exist? The team from the University of Durham has detected heat left over from the big bang that suggests the initial theory of dark matter and subsequently dark energy may be mistaken as ripples from stars were compared to other distant bodies. The find, if validated, would mean that a previously unknown 96% of the universe could have simply been in the imaginations of some of Earth’s top scientific minds and as a result the surrounding universe would be far easier for many people to understand.