English
dark matter
Noun

dark matter (uncountable)

  1. (astronomy, astrophysics) Particles of matter that cannot be detected by their radiation but whose presence is inferred from gravitational effects.
    • 2001, Susan M. Fitzpatrick, John T. Brue, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=otGR49vOGtYC&pg=PT192&dq=%22dark+matter%22+-intitle:%22dark+matter%22&hl=en&ei=OE3VTb2PHo6IvgPXxt2mDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CFEQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=%22dark%20matter%22%20-intitle%3A%22dark%20matter%22&f=false Carving Our Destiny: Scientific Research Faces a New Millennium],
      The evidence for dark matter in galaxies started to accumulate in the mid-1970s. By the following decade it became clear that essentially all galaxies, including our own Milky Way, are surrounded by extensive halos of dark matter.
    • 2004, L. Bergström, A. Goobar, Particle Astrophysics and the Dark Sector of the Universe, in John W. Mason (editor), Astrophysics Update, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=aR5fn_DHEQkC&pg=PA125&dq=%22dark+matter%22+-intitle:%22dark+matter%22&hl=en&ei=OE3VTb2PHo6IvgPXxt2mDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CE0Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22dark%20matter%22%20-intitle%3A%22dark%20matter%22&f=false pages 124-125],
      On large scales like that of clusters of galaxies, gravitational lensing indicates that the dark matter is smoothly distributed, on the average.
  2. (particle physics, cosmology) By restriction, particles that have mass, which does not readily interact with normal matter except through gravitational effects.
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