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What is dark matter made of? What happens if dark matter disappears from the Universe
Source of all gravity that binds the universe together is from the dark matter. Without the dark matter the Universe will disintegrate.
Since we can only have indirect information regarding it, its nature is yet uncertain. It could be ordinary matter, that is the same stars and planets are made of, but not in the condition of emitting radiation.
For example, it could be made of planets or "brown dwarfs", not massive enough to produce energy by nuclear fusion. Nevertheless, it is thought that the number of these objects is lower than what would be necessary to explain the effects of dark matter observed.
According to a more likely hypothesis, it could be "exotic" matter, in other words different from the common protons, neutrons and electrons. For example, it could be made of massive neutrinos . In fact, it is thought that the neutrinos are particles without a mass, but some recent experiments suggest that they could have a mass, even though very small (1/5000 of the mass of the electron). Since the neutrinos are very common and fill the Universe like the radiation, they alone would account for the effects of dark matter observed.
Another kind of dark matter could be that composed of even "stranger" and yet unknown particles, the existence of which is predicted by theoretical physics but has not yet been demonstrated. We are talking about the so-called (weakly interacting massive particles": the axions, photinos, gravitinos, squarks , ... ).
Whatever its composition is, dark matter dominates the Universe, represents its main source of gravitational force and is responsible for a large part of its structure.
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