Thread by @newscientist

What is dark matter? What were the first stars like? We continue to discover more about the secrets of the cosmos, thanks to new telescopes like #JWST, but there’s still plenty we don’t know

Here are some of the biggest mysteries of the universe

newscientist.com/article/mg2553…

All 213 of the moons we’ve ever discovered are in our solar system. Our gas giants, Saturn and Jupiter, have the most

When it comes to moons in other planetary systems, none have been detected with confidence

newscientist.com/article/232906…

Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is the only body other than Earth in our solar system where water cycles between clouds, rain and seas

Which means exomoons around gas giants may be promising candidates in the search for life beyond Earth

Another big unknown is what the first stars in the universe were like

The hypothesis is that they were a group called population III stars, made entirely of hydrogen and helium leftover from the big bang - but we don’t know for sure

Because Population III stars are so old, searching for them involves looking deep into the past

Now, with the James Webb Space Telescope, there’s hope that we might soon catch a glimpse of them

newscientist.com/article/mg2553…

What is dark matter?

Over 80 per cent of matter in the universe comes in the form of matter we can’t see. There is no shortage of ideas for what this dark matter could be, such as an invisible sea of WIMPs - weakly interacting massive particles - or primordial black holes

But our detectors have come up empty, so dark matter’s true nature still remains a mystery

“We know a bunch of things that it isn’t,” says Seshadri Nadathur at @portsmouthuni

newscientist.com/article/232746…

Finally, what is dark energy?

Dark energy makes up an estimated 68 per cent of all the stuff in the universe - just don’t ask what it is…
newscientist.com/article/mg2453…

What we do know is what dark energy does

If dark matter is an invisible glue holding galaxies together, dark energy works the opposite way - making the universe expand ever faster as time goes on

Discover more about the enigmas of the universe: newscientist.com/article/mg2553…