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Dark Matter
http://cdms.berkeley.edu/Education/
- The Berkeley webpage on dark matter. Check out the Frequently Asked Questions page - it addresses many fundamentally interesting questions about dark matter like "Could dark matter be hidden within other dimensions?" and "What are some ways to detect dark matter?" Appropriate for high school students as well as experienced undergraduate physics majors.
http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/Cosmos/RotationsReckon.html
- An explanation of Newton's Law of Gravitation and how it applies to dark matter in galaxies and the universe. You may recognize this law from studies of planetary motions around the Sun. This is a good example of how scientists use the laws of nature to help infer information about invisible things like dark matter. High school level.
http://www.eclipse.net/~cmmiller/DM/
- This is a text site written in the form of a scientific paper (still quite appropriate for high school students). It clarifies subjects such as how to determine the mass of a galaxy, how scientists try to look for dark matter, and provides a good explanation of gravitational lensing.
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/rosat/gallery/display/darkmatter.html
- This is a display from ROSAT. It has some information about dark matter in a short paragraph as well as data from the satellite. It is a good resource for middle/high school students and teachers.
http://lalaland.cl.msu.edu/~vanhoose/astro/0023.html
- HST results (1994) showing that red dwarfs do not make up the bulk of the dark matter. This reads like a NASA press report,but anyone who can read a newspaper would get something out of this article. Has background information, too.
http://zebu.uoregon.edu/text/darkmatter.txt
- This is "text only". Covers important points and also fairly recent discoveries which contribute to our understanding of dark matter. Accessible for high school.
Magazine Articles
"Dark Matter and the Origin of Cosmic Structure", Sky and Telescope. October 1994. Good resource for high school aged students and teachers. Back issues are $4.50 within the USA. Instructions on how to order can be found at: http://SkyandTelescope.com/shopatsky/backissues.asp?catalog%5Fname= SkyPub&category%5Fname=Sky+%26+Telescope+Magazine.
- "Searching for Dark Matter", Sky and Telescope. January 1994. High school.
- Graham, Sarah. "Scientists Find Galaxies Devoid of Dark Matter." Scientific American. April 2003. There may not be as much dark matter in the Universe as astronomers previously thought!
Books
- "Invisible Matter and the Fate of the Universe", by Barry Parker; a decent non-technical book on dark matter, although a little dated (1989)