What is dark matter made of?

What happens if dark matter

disappears from the Universe

Source of all gravity that binds the universe together is from the dark matter. Without the dark
matter the Universe will disintegrate.

Since we can only have indirect information regarding it, its nature is yet uncertain. It could be
ordinary matter, that is the same stars and planets are made of, but not in the condition of emitting
radiation. For example, it could be made of planets or "brown dwarfs", not massive enough to
produce energy by nuclear fusion. Nevertheless, it is thought that the number of these objects is
lower than what would be necessary to explain the effects of dark matter observed.

According to a more likely hypothesis, it could be "exotic" matter, in other words different from the
common protons, neutrons and electrons. For example, it could be made of massive neutrinos . In
fact, it is thought that the neutrinos are particles without a mass, but some recent experiments
suggest that they could have a mass, even though very small (1/5000 of the mass of the electron).
Since the neutrinos are very common and fill the Universe like the radiation, they alone would
account for the effects of dark matter observed.
Another kind of dark matter could be that composed of even "stranger" and yet unknown particles,
the existence of which is predicted by theoretical physics but has not yet been demonstrated. We
are talking about the so-called (weakly interacting massive particles": the axions, photinos,
gravitinos, squarks , ... ).

Whatever its composition is, dark matter dominates the Universe, represents its main source of
gravitational force and is responsible for a large part of its structure.