Did European Scientists Find Dark-Matter Signal Buried in X-Rays?
Scientists say they may have discovered a possible dark matter signal coded in the X-rays emanating from two bright objects in the sky.
The findings, set to be published next week in Physical Review Letters, could offer tangible evidence for the existence of dark matter — and help researchers build new tools to search for and study this mysterious stuff.
A hunt for dark matter in a former gold mine
When it comes to matter in the universe, dark matter is like a backroom political power broker: You never see it, but behind the scenes, it’s been throwing its weight around. The effects of its gravitational influence can be seen in the large-scale structures of the cosmos. Dark matter makes up about 84.5% of the matter in the universe while all the stuff we actually see — stars, galaxies, planets, ourselves — makes up the remaining 15.5%.* The enormous galaxies and clusters of galaxies that populate the universe are bantamweights compared to the massive, unseen dark matter ‘halos’ that anchor them.
More: Did European Scientists Find Dark-Matter Signal Buried in X-Rays?