The Elephant in the Universe: 100-year search for dark matter Author: Govert Schilling The Century-Old Mystery Begins: Early Astronomical Observations
Update: 2025-09-06
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The Elephant in the Universe: 100-year search for dark matter Author: Govert Schilling
The Century-Old Mystery Begins: Early Astronomical Observations
Headline: Pioneers Uncover Unseen Gravitational Effects in the Cosmos
In 1922, Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn, a Dutch astronomer, was the first to introduce the term "dark matter" in a paper theorizing the arrangement and motion of the sidereal system, realizing unseen matter had gravitational effects within the Milky Way. A decade later, his student, Jan Oort, further identified the Milky Way's rotation and, by studying the up-and-down motions of stars, made an early estimate of dark matter in the galaxy's central plane. Building on this, Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky observed the Coma Cluster in California, using redshift to determine galaxy motions. He concluded there was more mass and gravity than visible, coining the German term "dunkle Materie," meaning "dark matter." These early 20th-century findings laid the groundwork for the ongoing dark matter mystery.
1957
The Century-Old Mystery Begins: Early Astronomical Observations
Headline: Pioneers Uncover Unseen Gravitational Effects in the Cosmos
In 1922, Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn, a Dutch astronomer, was the first to introduce the term "dark matter" in a paper theorizing the arrangement and motion of the sidereal system, realizing unseen matter had gravitational effects within the Milky Way. A decade later, his student, Jan Oort, further identified the Milky Way's rotation and, by studying the up-and-down motions of stars, made an early estimate of dark matter in the galaxy's central plane. Building on this, Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky observed the Coma Cluster in California, using redshift to determine galaxy motions. He concluded there was more mass and gravity than visible, coining the German term "dunkle Materie," meaning "dark matter." These early 20th-century findings laid the groundwork for the ongoing dark matter mystery.
1957
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