Everything we can see represents only four percent of the entire universe
In short: The stars, planets, and galaxies that fill our night sky are merely a tiny fraction of reality. The vast majority of our cosmos is composed of invisible substances that astronomers cannot see, detect, or even fully comprehend, leaving scientists facing a massive cosmic mystery.
For decades, astronomers have struggled to account for the 96 percent of the universe that remains hidden. This missing portion is comprised of two mysterious entities: dark matter and dark energy. While we cannot directly observe these substances, we can infer their existence through their gravitational influence on the visible 4 percent of the cosmos, which includes all known stars and galaxies.
The first clues regarding dark matter emerged in the 1960s and 1970s through the work of astronomer Vera Rubin. While studying galaxies at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Rubin observed that stars on the outer edges of galaxies moved at roughly the same speed as those near the center. According to Newtonian physics, these outer stars should have moved more slowly; without extra mass to hold them in, galaxies should have been unstable and flying apart.
To explain this, scientists proposed that an unseen mass—dark matter—provides the necessary gravitational pull. A leading hypothesis suggests dark matter consists of exotic particles that do not interact with light or regular matter. However, despite decades of targeted experiments, these particles have eluded detection. This has led to a sense of discouragement among some mid-career researchers who have yet to find answers.
The search continues through massive scientific endeavors, such as the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. As particle physicists like Claire Malone work to identify these missing building blocks, the search for dark matter and dark energy remains one of the most significant challenges in modern science, forcing us to question our fundamental understanding of nature itself.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Claire Malone: The missing 96 percent of the universe
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