The Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, in collaboration with the Physics Department, Junior College, and the Institute of Space Sciences and
Astronomy are organising:
The Mystery of Dark Matter
Professor Isabel Lopes
Department of Physics, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
Date: Thursday 2 June 2016
Time: 18:00
Venue: Aula Magna, University Valletta Campus
Persons interested in attending should send an email or call on +356 2340 2524
Abstract
Dark matter is a mysterious type of matter that can not be seen but that makes up about 90% of the mass of the universe. Dark matter has been given this name because it doesn’t emit, reflect or absorb light. So far, we only know it exists because we can see its gravitational effects. For instance, galaxies and galaxy clusters are spinning more quickly than they should if only regular matter - i.e. the matter, as we know it - existed. They would have fallen apart long ago without the existence of dark matter. However, so far we know almost nothing about dark matter apart that it has to exist.
In this public talk we will address various hot questions about dark matter such as: what is dark matter? Why we are so sure that dark matter exits? Why is so difficult to discover what makes up dark matter? How we are trying to unveil the mystery of the dark matter? Why we are setting experiments deep underground, in old mines, to detect the dark matter that exist out there in the halo of our galaxy? We will answer these and all the other questions you may have about the mystery of dark matter.