Dark Matter

Physicists have measured the lifetime of a free neutron more precisely than ever before. This breakthrough "bathtub" experiment helps probe the fringes of the Standard Model of particle physics, and mysteries like dark matter and the early universe.

Last year, physicists reported that an experimental dark matter detector picked up a strange signal. A new Cambridge study suggests it could be the first direct detection of dark energy, the mysterious force accelerating the expansion of the universe.

A new type of gravitational wave detector has recorded two rare events that may be signals of dark matter or primordial black holes. These high-frequency gravitational waves are beyond the range of most detectors and have never been recorded before.

Dark matter should be all around us, but the stuff is frustratingly elusive. Now physicists at NIST have developed a new sensor that could help us detect certain hypothetical dark matter particles, using a two-dimensional quantum crystal.

Space is an exceptionally strange place, full of signals and observations that defy our understanding of the universe. In trying to explain these mysteries, sometimes astronomers hypothesize extremely exotic objects that we haven’t yet found.

In 2018 astronomers claimed to have found a galaxy that didn’t have any dark matter. The controversial study sparked a debate and raised new questions about cosmology. Now, the scientists say they've uncovered further evidence of the odd deficiency.

Supermassive black holes are thought to grow slowly over billions of years – but how did they appear so early in the universe’s lifetime? A new origin story suggests black hole seeds were created by halos of self-interacting dark matter collapsing.

The Milky Way is thought to host a supermassive black hole in its center – but perhaps its dark heart is made of different stuff. A new study proposes that it could instead be a core of dark matter made up of hypothetical particles called “darkinos.”

A team has made some intriguing discoveries in the outer regions of the Milky Way. Astronomers mapped the fringes of the sparse halo that envelops our home galaxy, and found the wake of a dwarf galaxy on an eventual collision course with the Milky Way.

Scientists may be able to detect the presence of dark matter by searching for anomalous heat signatures from distant alien worlds. Dark matter is an enigmatic, invisible substance that is thought to make up around 80 percent of the universe’s mass.

There’s invisible, undetectable stuff all around us, and we call it dark matter. There’s plenty of evidence that this stuff is very real, but what exactly is dark matter? How do we know it’s there? And how are scientists looking for it?

With elusive dark matter continuing to evade detection, scientists are having to search in stranger and stranger places. In a new study, physicists at MIT have studied the spins of black holes for signs of drag from dark matter slowing them down.