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This post has been removed. Please see the Astrobites Statement on Harassment Case at Leiden University for more details about this removal.
With the death of Vera Rubin, we retrace the steps on her most important discovery. From watching the speed of stars and gas orbiting a galaxy she found a mysterious quirk in the results, and followed it to find inescapable evidence that led to the discovery of invisible and mysterious matter, 5 times more massive than all other matter in the Universe.
Rotation curves—the first clue that led us to the existence of dark matter—may also provide clues as to the dark matter’s particle identity.
Based on galactic rotation curves, we think that spiral galaxies are embedded in massive dark matter halos. Is the same true for elliptical galaxies? Magain and Chantry use gravitational lensing to measure the mass-to-light ratios in 15 elliptical galaxies, and the results might surprise you!