EARTHSKY - The mysterious substance known as dark matter makes up most of the mass in the universe. But there is a lot we don’t know about it. Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, have suggested using exoplanets – planets orbiting distant stars – to study and better understand dark matter. They said on August 21, 2025, that dark matter particles could accumulate inside giant Jupiter-like exoplanets. Dense dark matter particles could eventually collapse to form a black hole inside a planet. The black hole could then ultimately consume the entire planet, fully transforming the world into a black hole.
Dark matter is a mysterious “substance” that scientists still know little about. We might tend to think of dark matter as something “floating around in space.” But it actually composes most of the matter and mass in the universe. This can include galaxies, gas clouds, stars and planets. Scientists say that 85% of the matter in the universe is dark matter, and just 15% is ordinary matter.