A $2 billion cosmic ray detector on the International Space Station has found the footprint of something that could be dark matter, the mysterious substance that is believed to hold the cosmos together but has never been directly observed, scientists say. Source: NASA
DARK Matter is the mysterious stuff that holds the universe together. Now, scientists have new clues as to what it actually is.
A massive science instrument that is spinning the globe aboard the International Space Station may have provided its first glimpse of what may be dark matter.
It makes up 25 per cent of the universe. We know it is there because of its gravitational pull on galaxies and light. But, so far, scientific instruments have simply been unable to detect what it is.
That may all be about to change.
The first results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, the most sensitive particle physics spectrometer ever sent to space, seem to indicate "evidence of a new physics phenomena," a press statement from the international research team said on Wednesday.
Just what it is will require more research, and is not yet a definitive finding but is the first of many reports expected to come from the AMS, built by an international team from 16 countries.
The data published in the journal Physical Review Letters comes from 25 billion cosmic ray events compiled since the AMS arrived at the orbiting outpost aboard the space shuttle Endeavour's final flight in 2011.
An image released by NASA shows how clouds of Dark Matter have been detected by "bending" light with its gravity.
NASA was to hold a press conference later today to discuss the findings.
The AMS studies cosmic rays - which are charged high-energy particles that permeate space - before they interact with Earth's atmosphere.
The first hints of excess antimatter in the cosmic ray influx were observed about two decades ago, but its origin remains a mystery.
Dark matter - which makes up about a quarter of the universe - has never been directly detected before, but has been observed indirectly through its interaction with visible matter.
Of the 25 billion cosmic ray events the AMS has studied, "an unprecedented number, 6.8 million, were unambiguously identified as electrons and their antimatter counterpart, positrons," said a press release from CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research.
"Over the coming months, AMS will be able to tell us conclusively whether these positrons are a signal for dark matter, or whether they have some other origin," AMS spokesman Samuel Ting said in a statement.
This undated image shows an artist's concept of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, rounded module at left, installed on the International Space Statio.
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