Evidence for dark matter (galaxy rotation curves)
Evidencia de la materia oscura (curvas de rotación)
- Date
- 1933-1980 · confidence medium
- Place
- Carnegie Institution (DTM), Washington D.C., United States
- Credited to
- Vera Rubin; Kent Ford; Fritz Zwicky
- People
- 👤 Fritz Zwicky1898–1974👤 Kent Ford1931–2023👤 Vera Rubin1928–2016
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
The outer stars of galaxies rotate as fast as the inner ones, which requires an invisible mass five times greater than the visible matter; Zwicky had already inferred this in clusters in 1933. 85 per cent of the universe's matter is of unknown nature.
Coordinate with astronomy. Rubin never received the Nobel Prize; her key work with Ford dates from 1970 (Andromeda) and 1980 (galaxy sample).
What it led to
- Lambda-CDM cosmology
- Search for dark matter particles (WIMP, axions)
- Gravitational lensing and the Bullet Cluster (2006)
- Modified gravity theories (MOND)
Built on
- Newtonian dynamics and general relativity
- High-sensitivity spectrographs
- Zwicky's (1933) and Babcock's (1939) work
Made possible
- Underground dark-matter detectors (XENON, LUX)
- Cosmological simulations