Physicists have long theorized that our universe may not be limited to what we can see. By observing gravitational forces on other galaxies, they’ve hypothesized the existence of “dark matter,” which would be invisible to conventional forms of observation.

Pran Nath, the Matthews Distinguished University Professor of physics at Northeastern University, says that “95% of the universe is dark, is invisible to the eye.”

“However, we know that the dark universe is there by [its] gravitational pull on stars,” he says. Other than its gravity, dark matter has never seemed to have much effect on the visible universe.

Yet the relationship between these visible and invisible domains, especially as the universe first formed, has remained an open question.

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