<p><strong>Dark matter and dark energy: </strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">Welcome back to “Science For Everyone”, ABP Live’s weekly science column. Last week, we discussed the Manhattan Project and the science behind the atomic bomb. This week, we discuss what dark matter and dark energy are, and what a CERN scientist says about these unseen phenomena. It will come as a surprise to many that the observable universe comprises only five per cent of the cosmos, but dark matter and dark energy encompass the majority of the universe. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">An astounding phenomenon occurs within galaxies. It is flabbergasting that galaxies do not tear themselves apart despite rotating at high speeds. The gravity generated by the observable matter of galaxies is not enough to hold them together, which means that they should have been shredded into pieces long ago if this were the only source of gravity.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Similarly, galactic clusters are not ripped apart because gravity, apart from that created by observable matter, keeps them together. Planets in the solar system also do not fall off their orbits. This led scientists to believe that matter, apart from observable matter, is holding these cosmic objects together. The unfamiliar, uncanny and undetermined matter, which is giving galaxies extra mass, and is generating the extra gravity required to stay intact is known as "dark matter". The main reason why scientists call this dark matter is that it is not visible. </span></p> <p><span style="color: #843fa1;"><em><strong>ABP Live spoke to Dr Archana Sharma, a senior scientist at the CERN laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, and asked her about what dark matter and dark energy are. </strong></em></span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><em><strong>Explaining that scientists put too many constraints on the Standard Model of Physics in order for it to work, Dr Sharma said:</strong></em> "There is a quest for dark matter and energy. We do not know if we will see particles of dark matter. Of course, gravity is not included in the Standard Model of Physics. This is because, on the energy scale, the graviton has to be discovered. So, we need to have an all-encompassing theory."</span></p> <p><strong><em>Dr Sharma</em></strong> <strong><em>also said</em></strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that the movement of galaxies is affected due to dark matter, and if it was not there, the cosmic objects would be moving in some other manner. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Now, if you look at the movement of galaxies, you see that the speed at which they are moving is accelerating. And the expansion of the universe is also accelerating. If I put a magnet under the table, and if I don't tell you that you have some magnetic materials on top, and I just move the magnet below and you don't know about the magnet, by the movement of the magnetic things on the table, you will be able to guess the position, and also the force of the magnet. This is electromagnetic force. But with the galaxy movements, there is of course, the gravitational pull. The movement is such that it is telling us that there is something very massive out there which we are unable to explain completely. If it wasn't there, we would be moving in some other way. So, it is telling us that there is something out there which is dark matter. It is 'dark' simply because we do not understand it. It is not real matter, because if it was matter, we would have observed signatures just like we found the rest of the matter out there. But there is something which is very heavy and denser than anything that we know, and the whole movement is affected because of that 'dark' matter,” </span><strong><em>Dr Sharma explained.</em></strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><em><strong>She said</strong></em> that everything apart from matter and dark matter is accounted for by dark energy. “The universe is made up of matter, dark matter, and dark energy. Everything apart from matter and dark matter is accounted for by dark energy.”</span></p>
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