Dark Matter

Roughly 80 percent of the mass of the universe appears to be dark matter: an invisible material that seems to interact with ordinary matter only through gravity, without emitting light or energy. Scientists cannot detect dark matter directly and don't yet know what it's made of, but they track its influence based on the motions of stars and galaxies. The presence of dark matter is necessary to explain the universe's current structure.

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What Can the Death of a Neutron Tell Us About Dark Matter?

May 24, 2018 | Article

Physicists speculate that decaying neutrons may be producing particles unknown to science that make up the elusive dark matter.
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Aliens May Well Exist in a Parallel Universe, New Studies Find

May 15, 2018 | Article

Could alien life be hiding in the multiverse? New studies say, "sure!"
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Two Nova Documentaries Will Explore Humanity's Biggest Questions About the Universe

May 09, 2018 | Article

For centuries, humans have wondered, Are we alone? and What is the universe made of? Scientists will tackle these exact questions in two documentaries, part of the new, six-episode PBS series "Nova Wonders."
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'White Holes' May Be the Secret Ingredient in Mysterious Dark Matter

April 27, 2018 | Article

White holes, which are theoretically the exact opposites of black holes, could constitute a major portion of the mysterious dark matter that's thought to make up most of the matter in the universe, a new study finds.
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Dark Photons Probably Don't Exist, and If They Did, They'd Be Super Weird

April 24, 2018 | Article

A measurement of the fine structure constant puts significant limitations on the existence of these dark partners to ordinary light particles.
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Is Dark Matter Made Up of Mini Black Holes from the Big Bang?

April 09, 2018 | Article

Dark matter may actually be a scattering of primordial black holes that arose soon after the Big Bang as a result of instabilities in the Higgs field, according to a new theory.
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Meet the Higgs Bubble That Will Destroy the Universe. Maybe.

April 06, 2018 | Article

Scientists have calculated an end date for the universe. Presuming there are no surprises, of course.
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This Is (Probably) the Only Way Dark Matter Interacts with Ordinary Matter

April 06, 2018 | Article

New, more accurate measurements of a group of colliding galaxies appear to indicate that dark matter interacts with itself and ordinary matter only via gravity, reversing conclusions scientists had drawn from observations three years earlier.
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Defying Theories, This Ghostly Galaxy Has Almost No Dark Matter

March 28, 2018 | Article

A ghostly galaxy has almost no dark matter.
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Mysterious Milky Way Signal Comes from the Past, Not Dark Matter

March 13, 2018 | Article

Mysterious cosmic signals radiating from the center of our Milky Way galaxy are actually triggered by ancient stars, rather than dark matter, a new study shows.
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