What Is Dark Matter Actually Made Of?

when observing the motion of galaxies scientists noticed something strange their movement didn't match the amount of visible Mass they had this led to the theory of Dark Matter a mysterious form of matter which permeates our universe but what exactly is dark matter made of there are a lot of theories out there but today we'll take a look at two popular candidates weakly interacting massive particles or wimps and sterile neutrinos let's start with wimps these are hypothetical particles that are massive compared to most other particles we know of and they interact with regular matter only through the weak nuclear force and gravity two of the four fundamental forces of nature in the early Universe wimps were constantly interacting with other particles but as the universe expanded and cooled those interactions slowed down eventually wimps froze out leaving behind a stable population wimps could theoretically annihilate each other producing high energy photons such as gamma rays scientists are trying to capture these interactions using highly sensitive detectors but so far wimps have remained elusive next we have sterile neutrinos unlike regular neutrinos sterile neutrinos are theorized to interact only through gravity detecting them would require identifying very subtle gravitational effects amidst the vastness of the universe which is incredibly difficult however they might be observed if they mix with the known types of neutrinos though the exact conditions and mechanisms for this mixing are still not fully understood physicists think that as sterile neutrinos Decay they emit photons which could be detected by x-ray telescopes in fact an unexplained x-ray signal was detected from the Andromeda galaxy which scientists believe could be linked to sterile neutrinos however more experiments are needed so while wimps and sterile neutrinos remain two of our best guesses detecting them is like trying to find a needle in an invisible hay stack now can we actually harness dark matter for now dark Matter's illusive nature and limited interactions with regular matter make it difficult to detect or manipulate but should we ever figure out its properties and how to control it the possibilities could be Limitless as always stay tuned for more science videos