Dark matter is a mysterious substance that has evaded all of our attempts at directly detecting it in our experiments on Earth. Dark matter is an important ingredient of the Universe’s evolution as it is the foundation upon which galaxies form – without it we would not exist in the solar system we find ourselves…Continue Reading How to Use Asteroids to Look for Dark Matter
Category: Astrophysics
Sizing from the Smallest Scales: The Mass of the Milky Way
All galaxies, including our own Milky Way, contain dark matter. But how much dark matter does the Milky Way have? This is a question that does not have a definite answer; turns out you can’t just weigh the galaxy on a scale and record the mass of dark matter. But that hasn’t stopped astronomers from…Continue Reading Sizing from the Smallest Scales: The Mass of the Milky Way
Seeing the Unseeable For the First Time: M87’s Black Hole
Black holes are a front runner for the title of the most mysterious object in our universe. Although predicted by Albert Einstein’s 1915 general theory of relativity and subjected to research for decades, black holes had evaded the gaze of Earth’s most powerful telescopes. On April 10, 2019, the veil was lifted. During a live…Continue Reading Seeing the Unseeable For the First Time: M87’s Black Hole