An international team of researchers has found that dark matter, comprising 85% of the universe’s mass, appears to interact with gravity as predicted by standard physics, falling into gravitational wells in a manner consistent with ordinary matter, according to a study published in Nature Communications.
Dark Matter and the Gravitational Well Experiment
For decades, scientists have known that more than 85% of the universe’s matter does not emit any type of radiation, making it invisible to telescopes. Its presence is inferred through its gravitational effects on visible matter, like galaxies rotating faster than expected and galaxy clusters remaining bound together.
Materia Oscura Se Esta Transformando Particulas Extranas Que Llenan
New Technique and Galaxy Analysis
To investigate, the researchers employed a novel technique analyzing the distribution of light in extremely low-mass galaxies – those containing only a few thousand stars. The team analyzed data from the Hubble Space Telescope, comparing the velocities of galaxies to the depth of gravitational wells – distortions in spacetime caused by massive objects – throughout the universe.
Findings and the Exclusion of a Fifth Force
The study found that dark matter falls into gravitational wells in the same way as ordinary matter, adhering to the equations of Euler and Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
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Implications for Dark Matter Models
While the findings support the standard model of cold collisionless dark matter, the research doesn’t entirely rule out the existence of a fifth force. Researchers at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), including Jorge Sánchez Almeida and Ignacio Trujillo, suggest the results provide an opening to explore models where dark matter interacts beyond gravity, potentially through particle collisions. The IAC study, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, was co-authored by Ángel Plastino of the Universidad del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (Argentina).
Alternative Theories and Particle Transformation
Another study, as outlined in labrujulaverde.com, proposes that dark matter may have formed from particles that condensed from a high-energy state in the early universe, a process likened to vapor condensing into water. This theory, detailed in a Physical Review Letters publication on May 15, 2025, suggests that dark matter particles may have initially been nearly massless, gaining mass through interactions in the early universe. Robert Caldwell, a professor of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth and the article’s main author, explained that they propose a radical transformation where dark matter began as particles almost without mass, similar to light, and ultimately became cold and heavy conglomerates responsible for the structure of galaxies.
Investigadores del IAC descubren que la materia oscura sufre
Further Investigations and Dark Matter Decomposition
A separate study, reported in europapress.es, reveals that dark matter could potentially decompose into gravitons and gamma rays, offering a new approach to resolving the cosmic enigma. According to Jorge Sánchez Almeida of the IAC, they were able to reject the cold collisionless dark matter model with high statistical significance using a novel technique based solely on the distribution of stars.
The existence of dark matter is considered one of the greatest unsolved problems in science, with scientists aiming to determine its true nature. As highlighted in SOURCE 3, the scientific community recognizes that over 85% of the universe’s matter does not emit radiation – a characteristic leading to its designation as dark or, as some researchers suggest, “invisible.”
These findings underscore the ongoing quest to understand the nature of dark matter, a fundamental component of the universe that remains largely mysterious. While the current results align with established gravitational models, the possibility of subtle interactions or alternative formation mechanisms continues to drive research in this field.
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