Dark Matter

Dark Matter Ring Modeled around Galaxy Cluster CL0024+17
Credit: NASA, ESA, M. J. Jee & H. Ford et al. (Johns Hopkins U.)
From Astronomy Picture of the Day.

This post is for my brother-in-law, Alan, who died suddenly last week.

Gravity holds together clusters of galaxies, otherwise they would fly apart. But there isn't enough visible matter in galaxy clusters to account for the gravity that holds them together. So scientists infer the presence of dark matter, which doesn't reflect light or shine. In fact, some scientists believe over 90% of all matter in the universe is invisible. You can read the complete article on Science Daily.


From my book, true character of the light.

I love the idea that the vast majority of mass in the universe is unseen dark matter. Could there be invisible worlds made of dark matter?

I sometimes envision a starry landscape as the place where people go when they die. I see a vast world, with small houses, or temples, here and there on the hills. The stars wheel slowly overhead. From a distance this world would appear to be one tiny point of light. It is small enough to hold us all as the atoms of one being, yet large enough to hold our spirits, with great spaces between us.