3D illustration of the dark matter explosion and creation of the universe with billions of cosmic atoms, flying meteors, a lot of of light elements, and halos of new stars
3D illustration of the dark matter explosion and creation of the universe with billions of cosmic atoms, flying meteors, a lot of of light elements, and halos of new stars

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Bringing balance to the Universe

A new toy model proposes a way to unify dark energy and dark matter in our Universe.

Normal matter is the basic building block of humans, plants, and the solar system, but yet only comprises 5% of all the matter in the Universe. The other 95% is typically invisible, other than when its presence is inferred via gravitational effects. This missing portion of the Universe is normally separated into two separate and distinct physical phenomena, dark matter and dark energy, which are two of the biggest problems in modern astrophysics.

A new toy model by Dr Jamie Farnes, of Oxford’s e-Research Centre, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A), suggests that both dark matter and dark energy can be unified into a single phenomenon - a fluid that has negative mass.

Read more in The Conversation.

Read the full paper in Astronomy and Astrophysics (A&A).