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Dark matter

Fritz ZwickyVera RubinKent FordMordehai Milgrom

This page delivers no verdict; it presents claims and evidence with their sources. No theory in science is absolute. Method

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For everyone

Galaxies and galaxy clusters rotate and move faster than the gravity of visible matter can explain. Most astronomers explain this with invisible "dark matter", but despite decades of searches its particles have not been detected directly. A minority argues that the law of gravity works differently at very weak accelerations (MOND).

For specialists

Zwicky (1933) found the virial mass of the Coma cluster far larger than its luminous mass. Rubin and Ford (1970) showed that Andromeda's rotation curve does not fall off in the outer regions. In the Bullet Cluster (1E 0657-558) the mass traced by gravitational lensing is offset from the X-ray-emitting gas, which is interpreted in favour of dark matter. Direct-detection experiments for WIMPs (LZ, XENONnT) have set increasingly strict upper limits. MOND successfully predicts the baryonic Tully–Fisher relation at galaxy scale but struggles with clusters and the CMB.

Claims

Evidence

Supporting

Observation

Stars and gas in the outer parts of the Andromeda galaxy did not slow down with distance from the centre.[2]

Observation

In two colliding galaxy clusters, the centre of gravitational mass was measured to be offset from the centre of the visible gas.[4]

Challenging

Experiment

The most sensitive direct-detection experiments on Earth found no dark-matter particle signal.[5]

Open questions

Connections

Parent

Astronomy and cosmology

Sub-branches

Modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND)Cold dark matter (the ΛCDM model)

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Sources

  1. ArticleZwicky, F. (1933). Die Rotverschiebung von extragalaktischen Nebeln. Helvetica Physica Acta 6, 110–127
  2. ArticleRubin, V. C.; Ford, W. K. (1970). Rotation of the Andromeda Nebula from a spectroscopic survey of emission regions. The Astrophysical Journal 159, 379–403DOI 10.1086/150317archive
  3. ArticleMilgrom, M. (1983). A modification of the Newtonian dynamics as a possible alternative to the hidden mass hypothesis. The Astrophysical Journal 270, 365–370DOI 10.1086/161130archive
  4. ArticleClowe, D. et al. (2006). A direct empirical proof of the existence of dark matter. The Astrophysical Journal Letters 648, L109–L113DOI 10.1086/508162archive
  5. ArticleLZ Collaboration (Aalbers, J. et al.) (2023). First dark matter search results from the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment. Physical Review Letters 131, 041002DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.041002archive

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Cite this page

APA

Athena contributors. (2026). Dark matter. Athena: The tree of human knowledge. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://latifkedi.github.io/athena/en/d/karanlik-madde/

BibTeX
@misc{athena_karanlik_madde,
  title        = {Dark matter},
  author       = {{Athena contributors}},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://latifkedi.github.io/athena/en/d/karanlik-madde/}},
  note         = {Athena: The tree of human knowledge. Accessed: 2026-11-01}
}

Added: September 27, 2026 · Last changed: September 27, 2026 · Page history

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