Have you ever wondered why there's so much empty space in the universe? it turns out that more than 70% of or known universe is made up of Dark Matter. What is Dark Matter? Why does it take up so much space? How can we use it for the betterment of our universe? There are so many questions that arise when something we know little about makes up so much of where we live.
What I Already Know About My Topic:

I chose to write about Dark Matter in the universe because it is a very rarely known thing in human understanding. When someone thinks space, they think planets, galaxies, and “Star Wars.” When I took my first high school science class, the very last section we had was about Dark Matter, and I had visibly freaked out to the point that my teacher asked me if I was okay. When it comes to “galactic” science, I tend to know quite a bit more about the subject than those that taught it to me because I was always a “Discovery Channel” child. Dark Matter is an interesting thing that you seldom hear or see anything pertaining to. This is why I have chosen to “teach” you about this potentially catastrophic element.

Have you ever just taken a moment to look up at the stars and thought, “Wow, there’s quite a lot of black up there! I wonder what it is?” Well, ladies and gentlemen, that “space” that surrounds us is actually not space at all! It is filled with boundless amounts of an element that doesn’t exist within the Earth’s atmosphere! Surprisingly enough it is filled with a substance called Dark Matter, otherwise known as ‘Anti-matter.” Now you may be filling up with questions but that’s okay because I have answers. You may ask, “Why doesn’t it exist in our atmosphere?” Well not to “contrary to popular belief” when Anti-matter and Matter come into contact there is, as Newton’s Third Law states, an action and a reaction. In theory, both atoms would connect with each other and, “Action,” the Anti-matter molecules and Matter molecules would combine, and through the process of Nuclear Fusion, “Reaction,” would explode at catastrophic proportions. Now isn’t that a coincidence? There are many of your questions that I unfortunately can not answer as of yet, but that is just the basis of my love for science. I’m always looking for new information.

What I Want To Know:

Throughout the beginning of my paper, I myself wanted to ask questions, and I eagerly await the moment when I can answer my questions to my contentment. I would most definitely like to learn more about the subject matter at hand, and I just wish I could just learn about these subjects every day. Though I can certainly not call myself an expert, I enjoy the title Pre-Professional. From doing this research paper I hope to answer not only my questions but many of yours as well. Some of the questions I will be asking will include questions that include, What effect Dark Matter has on the universe as a whole? If Dark Matter doesn’t exist in our atmosphere, then how do we know it’s actually out there? What proof is there of Dark matter? What is Dark Matter’s atomic structure? Finally Can we actually recreate Dark Matter?

In addition to these “big questions,” I will also attempt to answer some of the more common questions about Dark Matter. Those who ask the questions will not be discriminated. I will attempt to answer questions from various knowledge levels ranging from young student to professors of science. Such questions could be, “Could Dark Matter be hidden within other dimensions? What is the theory of Dark Matter? Could Dark Matter be Anti-Matter? Could neutrinos be the missing Dark Matter? Could mini-black holes from the Big Bang be what Dark Matter is? and Could Dark matter be gravity from other dimensions?”

The Search:

I. Chandra Dark Matter

Q) “Admittedly, dark matter has been inferred from gravitational effects on the unexpected orbital velocities of stars in a galaxy. They do not decrease outwards as predicted by Kepler's Laws. The question is: “Does the hypothetical dark matter itself rotate?” In other words, we "discovered" dark matter from the rotation of stars. How about the rotation of dark matter itself? Does it "matter" that dark matter rotates?”

A) The dark matter particles are themselves orbiting in the gravitational well created by the cluster mass, just like the stars do, with approximately the same average velocities as stars. In this regard, there is no difference between these two matter components.

Q)” Is it possible for the existence of an 'anti-dark matter?' It was long predicted for the existence of anti-matter in theory so it seems plausible to me.”

A) However, we would then have to explain why there are so many more dark matter particles than anti-dark matter particles ,the same problem we are faced with for matter and anti-matter, or explain where the anti particles are hidden

Q) “Could dark energy simply be the effect of gravity from other universes which surround this universe and big bangs occur when the material from adjacent universes collide, condense, then explode again? “

A) Most scientists favor a simpler answer than other universes, such as postulating a cosmological constant which is just a small amount of energy in each square meter of empty space.

Q) “Is it true that 95% of the universe is empty and consists of nothing?”

A) Another type of matter called "dark matter," which seems to behave like ordinary matter in that it clumps up into galaxies and clusters of galaxies, but which we cannot see in any wavelength that we have looked at so far. The third is "dark energy", which does not behave like ordinary matter, we do not see it clump up, but it pervades all of space and varies slowly in time. It seems that 70% of the universe is made of dark energy, 25% of dark matter, and only 5% of ordinary matter like you and me.

[http://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/faq/dmatter/dmatter-main.html]

II. Dark Matter Wikipedia Entry

According to the Planck mission team, and based on the standard model of cosmology, the total mass energy of the universe contains 4.9% ordinary matter, 26.8% dark matter, and 68.3% dark energy. Thus, dark matter is estimated to constitute 84.5% of the total matter in the universe and 26.8% of the total content of the universe. Dark matter's existence is inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter and gravitational lensing of background radiation, and was originally hypothesized to account for discrepancies between calculations of the mass of galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and the entire universe made through dynamical and general relativistic means, and calculations based on the mass of the visible "luminous" matter these objects contain: stars and the gas and dust of the interstellar and intergalactic medium. There are three prominent hypotheses on nonbaryonic dark matter, called cold dark matter (CDM), warm dark matter (WDM), and hot dark matter (HDM); some combination of these is also possible.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter]

III. Dark Energy, Dark Matter Science.NASA

We know how much dark energy there is because we know how it affects the Universe's expansion. Another explanation for dark energy is that it is a new kind of dynamical energy fluid or field, something that fills all of space but something whose effect on the expansion of the Universe is the opposite of that of matter and normal energy. That would not only affect the expansion of the Universe, but it would also affect the way that normal matter in galaxies and clusters of galaxies behaved. This fact would provide a way to decide if the solution to the dark energy problem is a new gravity theory or not: we could observe how galaxies come together in clusters. The thing that is needed to decide between dark energy possibilities - a property of space, a new dynamic fluid, or a new theory of gravity - is more data, better data. By fitting a theoretical model of the composition of the Universe to the combined set of cosmological observations, scientists have come up with the composition that we described above, ~68% dark energy, ~27% dark matter, ~5% normal matter. Second, it is not in the form of dark clouds of normal matter, matter made up of particles called baryons. High concentrations of matter bend light passing near them from objects further away, but we do not see enough lensing events to suggest that such objects to make up the required 25% dark matter contribution. Baryonic matter could still make up the dark matter if it were all tied up in brown dwarfs or in small, dense chunks of heavy elements.

[http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy/]

IV. Dark Matter Article Vanderbilt University

Most of the matter in the universe may be made out of particles that possess an unusual, donut-shaped electromagnetic field called an anapole. This proposal, which endows dark matter particles with a rare form of electromagnetism, has been strengthened by a detailed analysis performed by a pair of theoretical physicists at Vanderbilt University: Professor Robert Scherrer and post-doctoral fellow Chiu Man Ho. In the article, titled "Anapole Dark Matter," the physicists propose that dark matter, an invisible form of matter that makes up 85 percent of the all the matter in the universe, may be made out of a type of basic particle called the Majorana fermion. A number of physicists have suggested that dark matter is made from Majorana particles, but Scherrer and Ho have performed detailed calculations that demonstrate that these particles are uniquely suited to possess a rare, donut-shaped type of electromagnetic field called an anapole. These predictions show that soon the existence of anapole dark matter should either be discovered or ruled out by these experiments.""Most models for dark matter assume that it interacts through exotic forces that we do not encounter in everyday life. Anapole dark matter makes use of ordinary electromagnetism that you learned about in school the same force that makes magnets stick to your refrigerator or makes a balloon rubbed on your hair stick to the ceiling," said Scherrer. More recently, though, several physicists have examined dark matter particles that don't carry electrical charges, but have electric or magnetic dipoles. The anapole dark matter particles suggested by Ho and Scherrer would annihilate in the early universe just like other proposed dark matter particles, and the left-over particles from the process would form the dark matter we see today. But because dark matter is moving so much more slowly at the present day, and because the anapole interaction depends on how fast it moves, these particles would have escaped detection so far, but only just barely.

[http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2013/06/dark-matter/]

V. Math UCR What is Dark Matter?

We can estimate the total baryonic matter of the universe by studying Big Bang nucleosynthesis. This is done by connecting the observed He/H ratio of the Universe today to the amount of baryonic matter present during the early hot phase when most of the helium was produced. So only 1/20 of the total mass of the Universe is baryonic matter. The rest must be in baryonic dark matter halos surrounding galaxies. And there must be some non-baryonic dark matter to account for the remaining 95% of the matter required to give , the mass of the Universe, in units of critical mass, equal to unity. It has been observed in clusters of galaxies that the motion of galaxies within a cluster suggests that they are bound by a total gravitational force due to about 5-10 times as much matter as can be accounted for from luminous matter in said galaxies. The outer stars in galaxies seem to rotate too fast for the amount of matter that we see in the galaxy. These results can be explained by assuming that there is a "dark matter halo" surrounding every galaxy. For our purposes, these fall into two classes: those which have been proposed for other reasons but happen to solve the dark matter problem, and those which have been proposed specifically to provide the missing dark matter. Their properties are constrained by the theory which predicts them, but by virtue of their mass, they solve the dark matter problem if they exist in the correct abundance.

[http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/GR/dark_matter.html]

What I Learned:

· We would then have to explain why there are so many more dark matter particles than anti-dark matter particles (the same problem we are faced with for matter and anti-matter) or explain where the anti particles are hidden It seems that 70% of the universe is made of dark energy, 25% of dark matter, and only 5% of ordinary matter like you and me.

· According to the Planck Mission Team, and based on the standard model of cosmology, the total mass energy of the universe contains 4.9% ordinary matter, 26.8% dark matter and 68.3% dark energy. Thus, dark matter is estimated to constitute 84.5% of the total matter in the universe and 26.8% of the total content of the universe. Dark matter's existence is inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter and gravitational lensing of background radiation, and was originally hypothesized to account for discrepancies between calculations of the mass of galaxies, clusters of galaxies and the entire universe made through dynamical and general relativistic means, and calculations based on the mass of the visible "luminous" matter these objects contain: stars and the gas and dust of the interstellar and intergalactic medium. There are three prominent hypotheses on nonbaryonic dark matter, called cold dark matter (CDM), warm dark matter (WDM), and hot dark matter (HDM); some combination of these is also possible.

· By fitting a theoretical model of the composition of the universe to the combined set of cosmological observations, scientists have come up with the composition that we described above, ~68% dark energy, ~27% dark matter, ~5% normal matter.

· In the article, titled "Anapole Dark Matter," the physicists propose that dark matter, an invisible form of matter that makes up 85 % of the all the matter in the universe, may be made out of a type of basic particle called the Majorana Fermion.

· The anapole dark matter particles suggested by Ho and Scherrer would annihilate in the early universe just like other proposed dark matter particles, and the left-over particles from the process would form the dark matter we see today.

· For our purposes, these fall into two classes: those which have been proposed for other reasons but happen to solve the dark matter problem, and those which have been proposed specifically to provide the missing dark matter.

Work Citations:

Astrophysics, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for. "Chandra :: Resources :: Q&A: Dark Matter."Chandra :: Resources :: Q&A: Dark Matter. NASA, 3 Mar. 2010. Web. 13 Sept. 2013.

Chase, Scott I. "What Is Dark Matter?" What Is Dark Matter? SIC, 1993. Web. 21 Sept. 2013.

"Dark Matter." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Sept. 2013. Web. 21 Sept. 2013.

Netting, Ruth. "Dark Energy, Dark Matter - NASA Science." Dark Energy, Dark Matter - NASA Science. NASA Official, 30 Apr. 2013. Web. 21 Sept. 2013.

Salisbury, David. "New, Simple Theory May Explain Mysterious Dark Matter | Research News @ Vanderbilt | Vanderbilt University." Vanderbilt Research. Vanderbilt University, 10 June 2013. Web. 21 Sept. 2013.