On the other hand, if the dark matter particles moved slowly and covered only small distances compared to the sizes of the lumps in the early universe, we call that cold dark matter . Their slow speeds and energy would mean that even the smaller lumps of ordinary matter would survive to grow into small galaxies. By looking at when galaxies formed and how they evolve, we can use observations to distinguish between the two kinds of dark matter. So far, observations seem most consistent with models based on cold dark matter.
Solving the dark matter problem is one of the biggest challenges facing astronomers. After all, we can hardly understand the evolution of galaxies and the long-term history of the universe without understanding what its most massive component is made of. For example, we need to know just what role dark matter played in starting the higher-density “seeds” that led to the formation of galaxies. And since many galaxies have large halos made of dark matter, how does this affect their interactions with one another and the shapes and types of galaxies that their collisions create?
Astronomers armed with various theories are working hard to produce models of galaxy structure and evolution that take dark matter into account in just the right way. Even though we don’t know what the dark matter is, we do have some clues about how it affected the formation of the very first galaxies. As we will see in The Big Bang , careful measurements of the microwave radiation left over after the Big Bang have allowed astronomers to set very tight limits on the actual sizes of those early seeds that led to the formation of the large galaxies that we see in today’s universe. Astronomers have also measured the relative numbers and distances between galaxies and clusters of different sizes in the universe today. So far, most of the evidence seems to weigh heavily in favor of cold dark matter, and most current models of galaxy and large-scale structure formation use cold dark matter as their main ingredient.
As if the presence of dark matter —a mysterious substance that exerts gravity and outweighs all the known stars and galaxies in the universe but does not emit or absorb light—were not enough, there is an even more baffling and equally important constituent of the universe that has only recently been discovered: we have called it dark energy in parallel with dark matter. We will say more about it and explore its effects on the evolution of the universe in The Big Bang . For now, we can complete our inventory of the contents of the universe by noting that it appears that the entire universe contains some mysterious energy that pushes spacetime apart, taking galaxies and the larger structures made of galaxies along with it. Observations show that dark energy becomes more and more important relative to gravity as the universe ages. As a result, the expansion of the universe is accelerating, and this acceleration seems to be happening mostly since the universe was about half its current age.
What we see when we peer out into the universe—the light from trillions of stars in hundreds of billions of galaxies wrapped in intricate veils of gas and dust—is therefore actually only a sprinkling of icing on top of the cake: as we will see in The Big Bang , when we look outside galaxies and clusters of galaxies at the universe as a whole, astronomers find that for every gram of luminous normal matter, such as protons, neutrons, electrons, and atoms in the universe, there are about 4 grams of nonluminous normal matter, mainly intergalactic hydrogen and helium. There are about 27 grams of dark matter, and the energy equivalent (remember Einstein’s famous E = mc 2 ) of about 68 grams of dark energy. Dark matter, and (as we will see) even more so dark energy, are dramatic demonstrations of what we have tried to emphasize throughout this book: science is always a “progress report,” and we often encounter areas where we have more questions than answers.
Let’s next put together all these clues to trace the life history of galaxies and large-scale structure in the universe. What follows is the current consensus, but research in this field is moving rapidly, and some of these ideas will probably be modified as new observations are made.
Key concepts and summary
Stars move much faster in their orbits around the centers of galaxies, and galaxies around centers of galaxy clusters, than they should according to the gravity of all the luminous matter (stars, gas, and dust) astronomers can detect. This discrepancy implies that galaxies and galaxy clusters are dominated by dark matter rather than normal luminous matter. Gravitational lensing and X-ray radiation from massive galaxy clusters confirm the presence of dark matter. Galaxies and clusters of galaxies contain about 10 times more dark matter than luminous matter. While some of the dark matter may be made up of ordinary matter (protons, neutrons, and electrons), perhaps in the form of very faint stars or black holes, most of it probably consists of some totally new type of particle not yet detected on Earth. Observations of gravitational lensing effects on distant objects have been used to look in the outer region of our Galaxy for any dark matter in the form of compact, dim stars or star remnants, but not enough such objects have been found to account for all the dark matter.