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Science

Antonis Antoniou, PhD candidate in Philosophy of Science, University of Bristol

Dark matter: should we be so sure it exists? Here's how philosophy can help

The galaxy cluster Abell 520, with suspected dark matter highlighted in blue. NASA

It has been more than 50 years since astronomers first proposed “dark matter”, which is thought to be the most common form of matter in the universe. Despite this, we have no idea what it is – nobody has directly seen it or produced it in the lab.

So how can scientists be so sure it exists? Should they be? It turns out philosophy can help us answer these questions.

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