The Invisible Substance That Structures Our Universe

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2024

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The universe is so much bigger than what people can see. Visible matter — the ground, the Sun, the screen you're reading this on — makes up only about 4 or 5 percent of our known universe. Dark matter makes up much more of the universe. It's all around us even though we can't see it. So what is it? What's it made out of? How do we even know it exists? Host Emily Kwong and Rebecca Ramirez try to find out with the help of astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan.

This episode is part of our series Space Camp, all about the weird and mysterious depths of our universe. Check out the full series: https://www.npr.org/spacecamp.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from NPR sponsor Morgan Stanley with their podcast
0:04.1	What Should I Do with my money? Smart people don't always feel smart about money.
0:08.2	Listen to what should I do with my money to hear real people getting real help from
0:12.2	experienced financial advisors.
0:14.0	Hey everyone it's Regina Barber and I'm checking in from Starship Shortwave.
0:19.0	For this week's edition of Space Camp we're revisiting an episode that's one of my personal favorites all about dark matter.
0:26.0	It features former Shortwave producer and now showrunner Rebecca Ramirez and it's hosted by
0:30.6	Emily Kwong.
0:31.6	I'll let them take it from here.
0:33.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:38.0	Hey everybody, Emily Kwong here with Shortwave producer Rebecca Ramirez.
0:43.4	Hi lady.
0:44.4	Hello!
0:45.4	What's you got for us today?
0:47.4	Well Emily, as you know, I'm kind of in love with the mysteries of our because I want to talk to you about dark matter, which is all around us.
1:05.0	Okay, dark matter, what is that?
1:08.0	So there's regular matter, all the things that are visible to you and me,
1:12.0	the clothes you're using to soundproof your closet for recording, all the stars, planets,
1:16.4	you get the idea. And scientists like Priam Vada Naturajan, a professor of astronomy and physics
1:22.2	over at Yale say all of that is only somewhere
1:27.0	around 4 to 5 percent of our universe.
1:31.1	So it's just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, the bulk of the matter in
	...

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