Scientists have recently conducted a study to explore the possibility that dark matter may be more fuzzy than cold, adding to the mysterious and invisible substance’s complexity. A team of astronomers used data obtained from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which involved 13 galactic clusters, to analyze the cosmic conundrum’s properties.
Since the past many decades, scientists have been trying to comprehend the detailed properties of dark matter. The most popular theory assumes that dark matter is a particle much bigger in size than a proton that is "cold," indicating that it moves at speeds much smaller than light’s speed. Though this model has successfully explained the universe’s structure on very large scales, it has shortcomings explaining matter distribution on the smaller scale of galaxies. Another problem with the cold dark matter model is that it predicts a much higher number of small galaxies that orbit around galaxies like the Milky Way than scientists actually see.
To address the shortcomings of the cold dark matter model, researchers have developed alternative models where dark matter has very different properties -- one of which is the fuzzy dark matter model. This simple model has successfully explained the location and amount of dark matter in small galaxies.
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