The Unsolved Mystery On Composition Of The Universe

What our universe is composed of? We would probably say all the things that we could see in real life. The most common and the correct answer would be that the universe includes the earth, the sun, stars and much more. These things are made of protons, neutrons, and electrons which are also a part of the universe.

What if I say that those things listed above contribute only 5% to the entire mass of the universe? Yes, you read that right. It contributes only 5% of the entire mass. This was one surprising discovery in the 20^th century. Let’s see what occupies the remaining 95% of the mass.

The rest of the universe is composed of mysterious invisible substances called dark matter and dark energy. Dark matter contributes to 25% of the mass of the universe and dark energy contributes to the remaining 70% of the mass.

DARK MATTER
The name stands for itself. A scientist named them as dark matter since they are invisible and cannot be viewed by any of the advanced instruments around the world. Galaxies composed of stars, planets, and moons revolve around at different speeds. But they are made to orbit more or less at the same speed because of an invisible effect on those stars which is referred to as dark matter.

Scientist see the dark matter as a spider web which slows down the speed of the orbiting galaxies

They cannot be viewed because they do not emit, absorb or reflect light. They do not interact with electromagnetic forces. The electromagnetic force is a combination of electro and magnetic force which acts between two charged particles.

Though there are many theories proposed on dark matter, they still remain a great mystery as a scientist has never proven the shape or characteristics of a dark matter

RESEARCH AT CERN
CERN is a European center for research in particle physics. There are many theories that say that dark matter is light enough to be produced by a particle accelerator. An particle accelerator is a machine which utilizes electromagnetic fields to impel charged particles to extremely fast. CERN has its own particle accelerator called THE LARGE HADRON COLLOIDOR (LHC)

LHC is the world’s largest and biggest particle accelerator which was started on 10^th September 2008. It is a 27-kilometer ring of superconducting magnets with various quickening structures to help the vitality of the particles en route.

Using LHC, the scientists at CERN are trying to generate dark matter particles which could be tested on the lab.

DARK ENERGY
Scientists were under great shock when they discovered the existence of dark energy in the 1990s.We were always told that the universe is expanding day by day. Dark energy is the major factor for the expansion.

When dark matter slows down the speed of the orbiting galaxies, dark energy is a repulsive force which tends to accelerate the expansion of the universe. This dark energy is spread evenly throughout the universe.

The scientist has measured the rate at which the universe is expanding. With this measurement and other scientific data, a scientist has confirmed that there is mysterious energy which exists in the universe and they named it to be DARK ENERGY.

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