Lost & Found

Four Astronomical Discoveries of "Missing Matter" Support Cosmic Creation

During my graduate school days at the University of Toronto I had the privilege of taking a short course from Princeton University astronomer and cosmologist Jeremiah Ostriker. In that course Ostriker spoke about the "missing mass" of the universe. The mass he referred to was not the dark matter (also known as cold dark matter or exotic dark matter), comprised of particles that do not interact, or only weakly interact, with photons. Rather, he was concerned about missing atomic matter, matter comprised of protons, neutrons, and electrons, which interact strongly with photons. Detection of such matter carries significant implications for the reliability of models for the beginning of the universe, often called big bang models.