• Question: what is the posability of there being a dark matter astroid

    Asked by 966grte22 to Steve, Emma, Christian, Bose, Alice on 16 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Steve Marsden

      Steve Marsden answered on 16 Mar 2016:

      Very unlikely. Though our knowledge of dark matter is very young, and as we learn more our ideas may change.

      Dark matter doesn’t really clump together all that much. The smallest clumps are dark matter that we know of are the size of galaxies. Even if it did clump together into an asteroid sized blob, it wouldn’t behave as you may think.

      Imagine this asteroid coming towards Earth. It would be completely invisible. As it collides with the Earth… nothing happens. It would pass straight through and both the asteroid and Earth would carry on as if nothing happened.

      In fact, the galaxy is full of dark matter, and it’s passing though us all the time.

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