dark matter

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Related to dark matter: antimatter, Dark energy

dark matter

Matter that emits little or no detectable radiation of its own, postulated to account for observed gravitational forces that affect astronomical objects but have no observable sources. Dark matter is thought to be part of the missing mass.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

dark matter

(Astronomy) astronomy matter known to make up perhaps 90% of the mass of the universe, but not detectable by its absorption or emission of electromagnetic radiation

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

dark′ mat`ter

a hypothetical form of matter invisible to electromagnetic radiation, postulated to account for gravitational forces observed in the universe.

[1920–25]

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Noun

dark matter - (cosmology) a hypothetical form of matter that is believed to make up 90 percent of the universe; it is invisible (does not absorb or emit light) and does not collide with atomic particles but exerts gravitational force

matter - that which has mass and occupies space; "physicists study both the nature of matter and the forces which govern it"

cosmogeny, cosmogony, cosmology - the branch of astrophysics that studies the origin and evolution and structure of the universe

weakly interacting massive particle, WIMP - a hypothetical subatomic particle of large mass that interacts weakly with ordinary matter through gravitation; postulated as a constituent of the dark matter of the universe

Translations

materia oscura

dark matter

n (Astron) → dunkle Materie, Dunkelmaterie f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

References in periodicals archive ?

Washington, Oct 31 ( ANI ): The search for the elusive dark matter has met with vain after the first results from a high-tech instrument turned up empty.

Search for `elusive` dark matter turns up empty

Though no direct evidence of dark matter has been detected, the possibility of its existence has grown over the decades, thanks to the strange motion of stars and ionized gases seen in different galaxies.

Dark Matter Doesn't Cause Disorderly Stellar Movement In Dwarf Galaxies

With further analysis it may provide insights into the nature of dark matter, perhaps even indicating that new physics is at work.

Wobbling Galaxies: New Evidence for Dark Matter Makes It Even More Exotic

In this scenario dwarf galaxies, which are rich in dark matter, should emit gamma rays, too.

The origin of the Milky Way's mysterious gamma rays

While dark matter has proven an exceptionally good tool to explain the formation of large galaxies and clusters, it routinely runs into trouble when attempting to describe tiny structures such as satellite galaxies.

Milky Way enigma explained: lighter dark matter may have led to fewer satellite galaxies

Dark matter, which researchers believe make-up about 80 per cent of the universe's mass, is one of the most elusive mysteries in modern physics.

Dark matter may be older than Big Bang: Study

The study, published August 7 in Physical Review Letters, presents a new idea of how dark matter was born and how to identify it with astronomical observations.

Dark Matter May Be Older Than Big Bang

While dark matter is not directly observable, scientists know it exists because of how if affects visible matter. 

Dark Matter Gets More Mysterious: May Be Older Than Big Bang

The first evidence for the existence of dark matter was produced in the 1930s, when astronomers observing the motion of galaxies found a discrepancy in their expectation that only accounted for matter that emitted light.

Searching in the dark: Jessica Rowbury looks at the latest research in the hunt for dark matter, one of the biggest mysteries in physics

Ciaran O'Hare from the University of Zaragoza, Spain, and colleagues calculated the impact of S1 on the dark matter in our region.

Dark Matter Hurricane to storm past earth, say scientists

Relativity predicts that normal matter should fall freely toward dark matter. But a fifth force that has the ability to interact with both normal and dark matter could strengthen or diminish dark matter's gravitational pull.

Pulsar Test Limits Existence of "Fifth Force"

Researchers thought they were one step closer to identifying the mysterious substance when they noticed a galaxy in a cluster had become separated from the dark matter surrounding it three years ago.