Dark Matter

Scientists have estimated the total amount of matter in the universe using a more precise method. By calculating the mass of hundreds of galaxy clusters, the team found that matter makes up around a third of the contents of the universe.

In recent years astronomers made the puzzling discovery of two bizarre galaxies with almost no dark matter, which should dominate them. Now, a new study has suggested an explanation for that mystery – a larger nearby galaxy is stripping it away.

An extensive search for a hypothetical particle has turned up empty. The sterile neutrino is a proposed subatomic particle that could even be a candidate for the mysterious dark matter, but two new experiments have all but ruled it out.

Could there be a tiny black hole hiding in our own backyard? It’s been suggested that the hypothetical Planet Nine is actually a black hole, and now astronomers have proposed how we might find it in the next few years, using an upcoming telescope.

An experiment designed to hunt for ever elusive dark matter has returned some strange and exciting signals. Out of the three possible explanations, one is unwanted interference – while the other two would herald new physics.

NASA has officially named its next planet hunter. Previously known as the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is named after NASA’s first chief astronomer, who has often been referred to as the Mother of Hubble.

It’s been calculated that dark matter is around five times more common than regular matter – and yet, we still haven’t directly detected it. Now CERN has joined the hunt, testing whether the famous Higgs boson could decay into dark matter.

The Standard Model of particle physics still has some holes in it. Now, a new study outlines how one hypothetical particle, the axion, may be the answer to three separate, massive mysteries of the universe – including why we’re here at all.

Dark matter is believed to outnumber regular matter by a ratio of five-to-one, but so far it’s never been directly detected. Now, nuclear physicists have proposed a new candidate particle that might make up the stuff – and we’ve already found it.

Large clouds of dark matter have been indirectly detected before, but it should also form smaller clumps. Now Hubble observations have detected evidence of these small clumps for the first time, lending weight to a prevailing dark matter hypothesis.

The hunt for dark matter – the mysterious stuff that seems to outnumber regular matter by a ratio of five to one – has so far turned up no direct trace. Now, researchers at CERN have tried a new approach, using another strange substance – antimatter.

Rather than trying to see dark matter, a new experimental design from Stockholm University listens for it instead, using an “axion radio.”