10 Things Absolutely Nobody Knows The Answer To

3. Dark Matter

Oh yeah, if that wasn't enough of a gravity-based trip, then we humbly offer up dark matter for your consideration. Our admittedly shaky understanding of gravity, such as it is, suggests that the cosmos should simply start falling apart at some point because of those uncooperative atoms. Except it doesn't, or else we would never have had the Star Wars, and they happened a long time ago. And a fair ways off, too. The substance that keeps everything from collapsing in on itself? Dark matter. And what exactly is that?

Not a clue, mate. Dark matter is actually more of a euphemism than an actual "thing". When a nosy astronomer stuck his nose in during the seventies, wondering why the galaxies existed despite their not being enough mass to produce the gravitational spin of solar systems, his scientist mates just sort of shrugged and said "We dunno. Dark matter?" without any real explanation as to what that is. Since their a bunch of smart people in lab coats have been arguing about what exactly dark matter is made up of.

Most think it consists of some hypothetical particles with funny names (MACHOs and WIMPs), but that's impossible to test, since dark matter is considered to be invisible and can only be detected based on the gravitational effects it has on larger objects. Which sounds like a cop out to us, to be honest.