[DesertRhino]

Dark matter doesn’t exist. It has never been shown to exist except on a blackboard. Basically physics is in a state of crisis. When a prediction cannot be observed, they conclude the thing being looked for is invisible.

Emporer has no clothes

[dangus]

Not invisible, just unknown. “Dark matter” really is a unique instance of physics being humble. It’s their way of saying, “there seems to be much more matter in the universe than we can explain.”

Dark matter isn’t necessarily dark, although most of it is probably far away enough from any light source like a star to be pretty dimly lit. “Dark” simply means “unknown,” the way that Africa used to be called “the Dark Continent,” or pre-Guttenberg, post-Alexandria European history was called “the Dark Ages.”

[Texas Fossil]

“Emporer has no clothes”

I once new a theoretical physicist who worked at John’s Hopkins before I met him in NM. He told me then (prior to 1986) that physics would eventually be forced to come to grips with the theories flaws, because of this exact issue.

He was right then, and now.

[Rockingham]

Dark matter has not been observed directly, but its existence is conjectured as the least disruptive explanation for the observation that galaxies seem to have more mass than is usually observed. Plausibly, dark matter could consist of ordinary matter like dust, rocks, and dead planets floating in interstellar space. Or, it may consist of mass unexpectedly residing in subatomic particles like neutrinos. Or maybe there is an abundance of small black holes.

In any event, physicists are working through the possibilities and in time will figure out the problem.