What is dark matter?
Dark matter is the name used for the material out in the universe which we cannot see, but can detect through it’s gravitational influence. When we look at galaxies, we can see a lot of matter in the form of stars, gas and dust. We can also see how the stars within those galaxies are moving in their orbits around the galactic core. The laws of physics tell us that these orbits should be at certain speeds, depending on how far they are from the core, but what we actually see is something very different. The Dark Matter theory states that galaxies are packed with something physical that we can’t see or otherwise interact with but that does have enough mass to make up the shortfall. Scientists don’t all agree what this dark matter actually is, but the leading idea is some form of previously unknown nuclear particle.