How is it clear to formulate for children what the Universe consists of? And how to explain this to adults? And indeed, what is our world made of? It’s rare that anyone thinks about this in everyday life, but if such an idea still occurred to you, you must definitely find an explanation! Indeed, this is the essence of knowledge, the desire to satisfy curiosity, characteristic of human nature. Someone is convinced that the Universe consists of energy, others will say: from atoms, chemical elements, and still others believe that the Universe is primarily a void. Who is right? Let's try to figure it out!
Science and life
A distinctive feature inherent in man since ancient times is the desire to know the world around him. Therefore, for many centuries, the most enlightened minds of mankind have been racking their brains over what the world in which we live consists of. Science is gradually developing, more and more information is accumulating, nevertheless, there are much more mysteries to this day than the surrounding space known to us. So, it is assumed that the Universe consists of galaxies, at the same time there is an alternative theory of “bubbles” - perhaps there are many universes, each next larger than the previous one. Is it so? Probably, scientists will find out about this after several centuries.
Directly connected are questions about what constitutes the Universe and the uncertainty of the existence of life on other planets, in other worlds. There are only two possible answers: either there is still life somewhere, or it doesn’t exist - that is how Arthur Clark formulated it in his popular works. At the moment, it was not possible to detect signs of life, but scientists do not yet have enough resources to explore space at a sufficiently large distance from our planet. Who knows, perhaps in the future the belief that the Universe is 99% empty will be finally dispelled, people will learn more about the structure of space and about the features of the formation and development of life. Who knows, maybe we will meet those who are like us?
Universe: what's around us?
As scientists were able to find out, the space surrounding us is predominantly formed by dark energy, dark matter. Finding out what the matter of the Universe consists of , scientists were able to calculate that the above entities occupy about 95% of the total volume. But what elementary particles they could be divided into, remains a mystery. However, at present there are many unconfirmed theories whose authors are actively working on their options. Presumably after some time, the riddle will finally find its solution.
Probably, to some extent, the answer to this survey will also provide an understanding of how life was born on our planet. And to this day, people argue whether this was divine will or evolution provoked by coincidence? Others are convinced that life came to Earth with a cosmic meteorite. Perhaps if we learn more about the structure of the space surrounding us, if we figure out what the world, the Universe consists of, we can tell exactly how life was born.
Modern physics: pushing the boundaries
The average person, having carefully thought about how to explain briefly what the Universe consists of, will most likely recall a school physics course, where they taught that the world around is matter in one of the usual states. It can be gas, liquid, solid or plasma. But the latest research in the field of physics has shown that this point of view is too simplistic, it is far from reality.
As advanced physicists of our time say, matter is baryonic matter. The term is applied to such a substance, which is formed by baryons, electrons. By baryons it is customary to understand a mixture of neutrons and protons. At the same time, the study of baryons, although closely connected with the knowledge of the world, since the Universe consists of atoms, nevertheless represents a separate specific discipline. If you look broader, immediately start from the cosmic scales, then it should be recognized that baryonic matter is such a substance that is completely ordinary, typical, characteristic for the Universe. It is it that forms the stars and planets, our Earth also consists of it, as well as everything that is present on it: living and nonliving. Understanding what cosmos and the Universe consists of, it is necessary to understand that when observing various waves, scientists are engaged in the study of baryonic matter.
Dark matter exists
About the thirties of the last century were the period when scientists, exploring what constitutes the cosmos and the Universe, proved that space is expanding. However, this knowledge gave much more questions than answers. What is the reason for the expansion, because gravitational forces must counteract it? The total mass, determined by what kind of objects the Universe consists of, at the same time should also control the possibilities of expansion. At that time, scientists even hypothetically could not assume how much mass the Universe should have in order for the processes occurring with it to become permissible. It is impossible to imagine how to distribute the mass in order to achieve a similar effect.
Such controversial information not only did not give a clear and accurate answer to the question of what the cosmos and the Universe consist of, but only generated a lot of contention. Only in 2011, the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to scientists who were able to prove most revealingly that the Universe is really expanding. In addition, they also discovered dark energy. Only with the award of this prize, it became clear that the scientific community was reconciled with this difficult to explain fact, which nevertheless correctly describes what is happening around us. Now scientists know approximately what the Universe consists of: from dark matter, energy. But the essence of these phenomena remains a mystery for seven seals.
Step by step - only forward
When scientists first showed that the Universe is capable of expanding, this set the vector for the development of astrophysics for many years. Nevertheless, answers to the questions posed during that period have not been found to this day. A general idea of what the Universe consists of, a generally accepted model constructed taking into account the recognition of baryonic matter, does not give a correct explanation either to the speeds with which galaxies can rotate, or to the expansion that should be quenched by gravitational attraction.
Using a telescope, a person sees galactic structures. But only a visual observation of what the Universe consists of does not provide a more or less impressive amount of information to explain the patterns of movement of elements. The only explanation that we could come up with several decades ago is the existence of some mysterious dark matter, which should be located in strictly defined places of the Universe. It was she who could be the cause of that abnormal (from the point of view of known laws) behavior of the surrounding space. Nevertheless, it turned out to be very difficult to prove what the Universe consists of.
The darkness around us
The astrophysical experiments conducted in the last few years are devoted to the peculiarities of gravity, including the phenomenon of lensing, which reflects that the electromagnetic radiation is somewhat distorted during propagation. Presumably, gravitational fields that objects in space possess play a role in this. The information that was obtained during these experiments has become the main evidence base for the existence of dark matter - it is believed that clusters of galaxies are filled with it .
Numbers and numbers
As it was possible to find out approximately in the course of scientific experiments, almost five percent of the Universe is formed precisely by baryonic matter, which we can observe, but dark matter is almost 27 percent of the total. The last slightly more than 68 percent is dark energy. This suggests that dark energy, matter in total give more than 95 percent of the volume of the universe.
Creepy Maybe!
As calculations carried out by progressive minds in the field of astrophysics vividly prove, only about five percent of the space around us is what a person can see, armed with all the technology currently available to him. But the bulk is some unknown dark matter, something indescribable, and data about it has not yet been revealed to us. Some scientists predict what will come to light in the future: baryonic matter mixes with dark matter, interaction between them is possible, partially explained by the laws of gravity. But so far, these allegations have failed to compile a solid evidence base.
The facts described above, many give rise not only to curiosity, but also fear - indeed, the picture is created amazing and frightening. Stars, planets, galactic clusters, the world around us, and even we are only a small fraction of the Universe compared to a huge, unknown dark world, which we have no idea even in general terms.
Dark matter: what is it?
At present, the term "dark matter" in astrophysics is usually used to denote such matter that does not have electromagnetic qualities, which are perceptible when using technology accessible to mankind. In fact, it does not emit photons, that is, it is not a source of electromagnetic radiation and cannot interact with them (as far as this can be determined by the means available to us).
Mystery behind mystery
Dark matter is a truly amazing substance, the properties of which are such that neither fixing, nor even exploring them is possible at this stage of development of human civilization. The scientific methods used today do not allow us to give a clear explanation of the properties and characteristics of dark matter, nor do they allow us to formulate its essence. On the other hand, scientists have discovered that dark matter is inherent in mass, as it is a source of gravitational effects. At the same time, there are no elementary particles having a charge in the structure of this substance.
Riddles without a solution
Scientists have known about the existence of some unknown force for a long time, although there were no official methods, ways to prove this force or describe its features. A good case in point are the two American spacecraft launched in 1972 and 1983. They both belong to the Pioneer category and flew under the tenth and eleventh serial numbers. As preliminary calculations showed, in our time both of these vehicles should already have flown away from the Solar system, but in reality their trajectories have changed for unknown reasons. When observing the peculiarities of the flight, scientists were able to assume that there is some uncertain, inexplicable, unknown force that prevents the vehicles from leaving the solar system.
That one, that the second spacecraft repeated the same trajectory, and this despite the eleven-year time interval between them and the use in the second machine of more advanced systems, means and methods of communication and traffic. According to many modern scholars, the “Pioneers” clearly show how great the influence of dark matter is, including in the star system in which our civilization was lucky to originate.
Dark matter: is there a difference?
Currently, some astrophysicists have suggested that the constituent elements of dark matter are neutrons, protons, that is, the essence of an unknown substance is exactly the same as that of baryonic matter, which we are used to. As some scientists say, dark matter should be, if not similar to dark, then very close to it. The only difference is that this substance does not exhibit electromagnetic features or shows them so weakly that we simply cannot notice this fact and study it.
Presumably dark matter is formed by atoms, molecules, not capable of reflection, radiation, absorption of photons, which form an electromagnetic field. Thanks to this, neither a person nor the most accurate of the devices available to us can fix the presence of these elementary particles. At the same time, the particles have increased resistance, they are not characterized by the decay process into lighter elements, otherwise the decay process would have ended, since the Universe has existed for a long time. Based on the indicated conclusions, we can say that there is a certain pattern of conservation of the gravitational features of dark matter, and it has yet to be discovered. Already, forecasts are being heard about the analogy between the laws of conservation of electric charge and this new law, which will be formulated in the future.
Theories are many
The option described above is far from the only assumption about what dark matter is inherently and what qualities and properties it should possess. There are a huge number of options, and it is not yet possible to predict with high probability who will be right. A huge number of theoretical models have been developed, applicable with a greater or lesser degree of success for the description of dark matter, different from the baryonic one familiar to us.
From the point of view of some scientists, the whole secret is in neutrinos: tiny particles can make up the whole matter that formed the Universe. Others are convinced that dark matter is elementary particles that are currently known only to a very small number of narrow specialists. However, this question is far from the only one that astrophysicists face. Indeed, in addition to dark matter, there is also dark energy. Its essence for mankind is even more mysterious, and there are no sensible explanations and theories explaining what kind of objects the Universe is, taking into account the theory of dark energy to this day. Scientists suggest that energy is evenly distributed throughout the entire Universe, which may to some extent be associated with the process of its expansion. Others suggest that it is dark energy that dampens the forces of gravity and makes the expansion process possible. But at present, these are only assumptions that do not have any clear theoretical justifications that inspire any confidence.