Fritz Zwicky was a Swiss astronomer. He worked most of his life at the California Institute of Technology in the United States of America, where he made many important contributions in theoretical and observational astronomy. In 1933, Zwicky was the first to use the virial theorem to infer the existence of unseen dark matter, describing it as "dunkle Materie".

He calculated the gravitational mass of the galaxies within the cluster and obtained a value at least 400 times greater than expected from their luminosity, which means that most of the matter must be dark. The same calculation today shows a smaller factor, based on greater values for the mass of luminous material; but it is still clear that the great majority of matter was correctly inferred to be dark.... More • http://en.wikipedia. ... itz_Zwicky View • Books • Images • Videos • Search Related • Astronomers • Theories • 1930s • Astronomy • Switzerland • People • Universe