Everything in the universe is moving...but it’s not all moving in ways we would expect. For our current theory of gravity to be correct, there must be a huge amount of “dark matter” in the universe to explain the movement and distribution of galaxies and other objects in space. But, is dark matter really a mysterious invisible particle, or is there a more mundane explanation? This week, we talk with one researcher who is on the hunt for the universe’s missing matter using some of the world’s most powerful telescopes.

Dr. Mike Shull is a professor in the CU Astrophysics & Planetary Science department, specializing in UV and X-ray observations of galaxies, their constituents, and the spaces between them. He works to understand the early days of star and galaxy formation and how they affect the distribution of matter in the universe both then and now. Mike also uses the Hubble Space Telescope to look at the local environment of our own Milky Way galaxy.