• Question: What is the distribution of dark matter in the universe?

    Asked by Ewan Rae to Clare, Glafkos, Paul, Samantha on 10 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      I believe there is an on-going debate on the distribution.. but I think its about 20% of the universe.

    • Photo: Samantha Terry

      Samantha Terry answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      I am learning so much from these questions/answers. Btw, I am a biologist.

    • Photo: Paul Booker

      Paul Booker answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      Do you mean how much of the universe is dark matter (vs dark energy vs normal matter) or how is it distributed in space? Either way I’m not sure! 😕

    • Photo: Glafkos Havariyoun

      Glafkos Havariyoun answered on 11 Mar 2015:

      About 27% of the universe if made up of dark matter!

    • Photo: Clare Devery

      Clare Devery answered on 11 Mar 2015:

      I love this question! Mostly because I had no idea what the answer was 🙂 I had a quick look online for the numbers and from what I’ve found Glafkos’s answer seems to be about right!
      What I don’t fully understand is how this number has been calculated – dark matter is just hypothetical and so its existence and properties are only inferred (from studying gravitational effects on visible matter) but can’t be actually measured. Anybody know more about it?!

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