Dark matter, the mysterious substance that is believed to make up the bulk of our universe, might not exist at all, according to a new controversial study. The study was published in the peer-reviewed academic periodical The Astrophysical Journal and challenges our current understanding of the cosmos.
Notably, NASA describes dark matter as all ''stuff in space that has gravity, but it is invisible and isn't like anything else we know about''. We can't see it, nor do we know what it's made of, but it helps us understand how galaxies, planets, and stars behave.
The study, conducted by Rajendra Gupta, a physics professor at the University of Ottawa in Canada, presents compelling evidence that challenges the traditional model of the universe, suggesting that there may not be a place for dark matter within it. He also suggested that our universe could be more than 10 billion years older than we've come to think, Science Alert reported.
The study negates the conventional consensus that roughly 27% of the universe comprises dark energy and less than 5% of ordinary matter.
Mr Gupta claimed that sound waves fossilised in the maps of galaxies could be interpreted as signs that the Big Bang took place 13 billion years earlier than current models suggest.
''The study's findings confirm that our previous work about the age of the Universe being 26.7 billion years has allowed us to discover that the Universe does not require dark matter to exist. In standard cosmology, the accelerated expansion of the Universe is said to be caused by dark energy but is in fact due to the weakening forces of nature as it expands, not due to dark energy," said Mr Gupta.
''There are several papers that question the existence of dark matter, but mine is the first one, to my knowledge, that eliminates its cosmological existence while being consistent with key cosmological observations that we have had time to confirm," he added.
The professor used a combination of the covarying coupling constants (CCC) and "tired light" (TL) theories (the CCC+TL model) to reach this conclusion. This model combines two ideas -- about how the forces of nature decrease over cosmic time and about light losing energy when it travels a long distance. 's been tested and has been shown to match up with several observations, such as about how galaxies are spread out and how light from the early universe has evolved.
