Dark matter mystery: Expert calculates the visible component in the universe

A previous study report had suggested that not dark matter, but a dark fluid forms 95 percent of the universe

The universe in which Milky Way resides is too vast and far beyond human imagination, and experts believe that dark matter accounts for approximately 85 percent of the matter in the cosmos. As dark matter mystery continues perplexing the mind of space scientists, a top expert has now suggested that everything we can touch and smell in the universe constitutes only five percent of the cosmos.

dark matter
Composite image of the Perseus galaxy cluster using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, ESA’s XMM-Newton and Hitomi, a Japanese-led X-ray telescope. X-ray: NASA/CXO/Fabian

Astronomer Gemma Lavender, a top astronomer has now revealed that everything we can touch and smell in cosmos forms just 4.9 percent, and the remaining entities in the universe are still unknown for human beings.

"The baryonic matter in the universe, which makes up all the planets and stars and interstellar gas that we can see in the cosmos, actually amounts to only 4.9 percent of all the matter and energy in the universe. It's an astounding statistic that means the vast majority of the universe is unseen and unknown," said Lavender.

Dark matter in cosmos: The unending mystery

It should be noted that dark matter is present in almost all galaxies which humans have observed until now. Experts believe that the entirety of the Milky Way galaxy is actually weighed down by dark matter.

"Because there is so much dark matter, it fills the cosmic web and forms massive haloes that attract more normal matter with their gravity. Indeed, our Milky Way galaxy is encored within an enormous halo of dark matter containing 95 percent of our galaxy's total mass, equivalent to up to three trillion times the mass of the Sun," added Lavender.

Dark matter or dark fluid?

A few months back, an expert at the University of Oxford had suggested that more than 95 percent of the universe is made up of a dark fluid that has a negative mass. Jamie Farnes, the researcher who led the study, revealed that this 95 percent of unknown matter is basically a single unified dark fluid of negative masses.

The research report also added that these negative masses are actually a hypothetical form of matter with negative gravity that repels all other materials around them.

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