Unraveling the Secrets of Dark Matter: A Cosmic Puzzle

Have you ever gazed at the night sky, wondering about the unseen forces that shape the universe? Scientists, armed with an arsenal of sophisticated observations and theoretical models, have delved into the mysterious realm of dark matter, a cosmic enigma constituting approximately 27% of the universe. ### Decoding the Composition The cosmic recipe reads: ~68% dark energy, ~27% dark matter, and a mere ~5% normal matter. But what exactly is dark matter? ### Dark, Elusive, and Not Conventional Dark matter is aptly named – it eludes our direct perception as it does not manifest in the form of stars or planets that grace our night skies. Observations vividly reveal that the visible matter we observe falls significantly short of constituting the observed 27%. ### Not Your Ordinary Matter It's not shrouded in dark clouds of conventional matter, composed of baryons – particles that constitute protons and neutrons. If it were, we'd detect these clouds through their absorption of passing...