The existence of dark matter was first suggested in 1922 by the Dutch astronomer Jacobus Kapteyn. Meanwhile, there are many more convincing clues to the existence of the enigmatic stuff. However, it is unknown what kind of particles the dark matter consists of. Future observation programs may change that, but some physicists are also toying with the idea that dark matter doesn't exist at all, and that instead there is something wrong with our ideas about gravity. In this lecture, Govert Schilling gave a fascinating overview of the search for dark matter - one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in contemporary physics and astronomy.
Some notes taken : Jan Oort, the first one measuring the vertical speed parameter of stars which resulted in calculating the mass of our milky way. Fritz Zwicky measured the speed of Galaxies in the Coma cluster. Vera Ruben, seen asthe mother of Dark Matter, found a flat rotation curve when measuring the verlocity of nebulas in the Andromeda Galaxy. Copernicus, the first space telescope, found that all baryonic matter was created during the big bang based on the % deutereum/proton and thus dark matter can not be normal baryonic. Jim Peebles and the cosmic background radiation, WIMP's, Elana Aprile & Xenon, MOND,... and much more. At the end... our universe consist of 5% baryonic matter, 69% dark energy and 26% dark matter.
The one note I take away is that, maybe there is a correlation between the inflation process which happened during the first moments after the big bang and the current inflation of the universe .
