How can astronomers study something that nobody has ever seen? In this episode, we switch to the dark side to shine a light on one of the biggest questions in all of astrophysics: the nature of dark matter. Malena teaches us how dark matter helps galaxy clusters glow up, and Will takes a journey to the center of the Earth to find prehistoric prints from a big WIMP. Plus, Alex brings us our most romantic space sound yet. 

Astrobites:

https://astrobites.org/2019/02/12

https://astrobites.org/2018/06/19

Space sound: https://www.system-sounds.com/heartbeat-stars/

Credits: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)

Credit: SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo & A. Santaguida). Data recorded by Kepler and accessed from MAST.