AD - Go to https://ground.news/drbecky to stay fully informed with the latest Space and Science news. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage plan for unlimited access this month only. | I often get asked how do we know dark matter exists? Which is why I've made a video on all the observational evidence we have before (linked below)! But occasionally I'll get asked how do we know how much dark matter there is, which is a really fun question. There's many different ways we can calculate this, including the ratio between normal (baryonic) and dark matter, but in this video I just wanted to highlight three different ways astrophysicists calculate this.

Here's my previous video on all the evidence we have for dark matter -    • All the evidence we have for dark mat...  
My previous video on whether dark matter could be made of black holes -    • Is dark matter made of black holes?  
My previous video on whether black holes contain dark matter -    • Do black holes contain dark matter?  
My previous video on why galaxies merge if the universe is expanding -    • If the Universe is expanding, then wh...  

Allen, Evrard & Mantz (2011; review on galaxy clusters observations) - https://arxiv.org/pdf/1103.4829
Zwicky (1933; first virial theorem paper in German) - https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/p...
Zwicky (1937; virial theorem applied to the Coma cluster) - https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/p...
Alpher, Bethe, & Gamow (1948; big bang nucleosynthesis; behind paywall) - https://journals.aps.org/pr/abstract/...
Alpher & Herman (1950; more BBN work; behind paywall) - https://journals.aps.org/rmp/abstract...
Planck collaboration (2015; cosmological parameter results for our best model of the Universe) - https://arxiv.org/pdf/1502.01589

00:00 Introduction
02:04 Ground News AD
03:54 Method 1 - Galaxy Clusters and the virial theorem
08:49 Method 2 - Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
11:39 Method 3 - Cosmic Microwave Background
14:35 Outro
15:24 Bloopers


Video filmed on a Sony ⍺7 IV

---

🎧 Royal Astronomical Society Podcast that I co-host: podfollow.com/supermassive

---

📚 My new book, "A Brief History of Black Holes", out NOW in paperback, e-book and audiobook (which I narrated myself!): http://lnk.to/DrBecky

---

📚 "The Year In Space" celebrating all things space in 2022 from me and the rest of the Supermassive Podcast team: https://geni.us/jNcrw

---

👕 My new merch, including JWST designs, are available here (with worldwide shipping!): https://dr-becky.teemill.com/

---

🔔 Don't forget to subscribe and click the little bell icon to be notified when I post a new video!

---

👩🏽‍💻 I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford (Christ Church). I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.


http://drbecky.uk.com
https://rebeccasmethurst.co.uk