Vera Rubin, the American astronomer who confirmed the existence of dark matter, died at the age of 88 years, on the December 25, 2016.
First, the existence of this material was proposed by astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky in the 30s, but Rubin is one that confirmed his hypothesis. The observations made by scientists in the 70s were met with skepticism, but were confirmed in the decades that followed.
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| BBC - Universe - Vera Rubin photo: bbc |
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| Reaching for the Stars - Vera Rubin photo: vq.vassar.edu |
First, the existence of this material was proposed by astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky in the 30s, but Rubin is one that confirmed his hypothesis. The observations made by scientists in the 70s were met with skepticism, but were confirmed in the decades that followed.
Dark matter is invisible and impossible to detect because it does not absorb or emit light, so even until this day no one knows exactly what it consists of.
Proof of its existence came when astronomers began to weigh galaxies and noticed that they are much heavier than was originally thought. Vera Rubin worked with a new spectrographs to determine the stars from the edge moves faster than was observed since the first calculations use only the visible matter. It is argued that this difference in speed is due to dark matter.
Rubin's discovery was presented in 1980 in an influential paper that supported the idea that dark matter is an essential mystery that astronomers need to solve.
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