Top Document: [sci.astro] Galaxies (Astronomy Frequently Asked Questions) (8/9) Previous Document: H.01.4 How many open clusters? Next Document: H.02.1 Evidence for dark matter See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge William Keel <keel@bildad.astr.ua.edu> Dark matter is matter that is detected by its gravitational effect on other matter rather than because of its electromagnetic radiation (i.e., light). This might be because of one of two reasons: 1. The matter may emit light, but the light is so faint that we cannot detect it; an example of this kind of matter is interstellar planets. 2. The matter might not interact with light at all; an example of this kind of matter is neutrinos. The first astronomical instances of "dark matter" were probably the white dwarf Sirius B and the planet Neptune. The existence of both objects was inferred by their gravitational effects on a nearby object (Sirius A and the planet Uranus, respectively) before they were seen directly. User Contributions:Top Document: [sci.astro] Galaxies (Astronomy Frequently Asked Questions) (8/9) Previous Document: H.01.4 How many open clusters? Next Document: H.02.1 Evidence for dark matter Part0 - Part1 - Part2 - Part3 - Part4 - Part5 - Part6 - Part7 - Part8 - Single Page [ Usenet FAQs | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer: jlazio@patriot.net
Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
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