A team of researchers from the Department of Astronomy at the University of Tokyo may have "seen" dark matter for the first time, thanks to NASA's Fermi gamma-ray space telescope, this according to an article published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics on November 25.
This would mark the first direct proof of dark matter's existence since it was theorized in 1933. The team was able to detect gamma rays from a halo-like structure toward the center of the Milky Way galaxy that is not explained by any other astronomical phenomena and closely matches what the models had predicted.
Indeed, for as long as humans have walked the Earth, the great endless sky and the countless stars that fill it have left us in a state of awe-inspired wonderment. Similarly, the study and exploration of space have been a priority for humankind for millennia. From the ancient Assyrians and Greeks to the greatest minds of the Renaissance and up to the billionaire space explorers of the 21st century, incredible amounts of time and effort have gone into better understanding our celestial surroundings.
Click through the following gallery to learn about some of the greatest discoveries of astronomy and our universe.