Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA)
Société canadienne d'astronomie (CASCA)
Henk HOEKSTRA
CITA
Astrophysical Evidence for Dark Matter
The evidence for dark matter as a significant constituent of the universe based on astronomical observations has been compelling for a long time. Observations of the rotation curves of galaxies and the motion of galaxies and gas in clusters of galaxies provided the first clues about dark matter. More recent probes such as weak gravitational lensing have significantly improved our knowledge about the amount and distribution of dark matter.
In this talk I will review the observational evidence for dark matter based on the variety of probes mentioned above, focussing on the most recent developments. I will also demonstrate how new observations are incompatible with alternative theories of gravity, which have been proposed to explain the observations without the need of dark matter.