dark matter

NASA / JPL-Caltech/ L. Jenkins (GSFC)

The discovery of dark matter stands as one of the most profound revelations in modern astrophysics. Its origins trace back to the early 20th century when astronomer Fritz Zwicky, in the 1930s, observed the Coma Cluster of galaxies and noticed a significant discrepancy between the mass inferred from the observed motions of galaxies and the mass calculated from the luminous matter alone. This realization led to the first hints of the existence of dark matter. Zwicky's pioneering work laid the foundation for further exploration of this enigmatic cosmic substance. Since then, we have confirmed the existence of dark matter in many more measurements. However, dark matter does not yet fit into our Standard Model of physics.