Physics & Math, features and articles | Educational Science

Apr 11, 2019

Is Dark Matter Fuzzy?

Physicists have long sought to uncloak dark matter and get an actual look at the mysterious substance that makes up a quarter of the universe. One idea for what's hiding beneath the cloak of invisibility? Many tiny, fuzzy particles that behave like one gigantic particle. But the most recent hunt...

Jul 26, 2019

'Dark Matter Bullets' Could Tear Through the Human Body, Wild New Study Suggests

About a quarter of the universe's mass consists of a mysterious, unseen substance called dark matter. And there's a chance that one form of it could behave like tiny, high-speed projectiles, blasting through human flesh like bullets, a new study suggests. In fact, the dark matter impact would generate so...

Oct 16, 2019

Exotic 'Fuzzy' Dark Matter May Have Created Giant Filaments Across the Early Universe

Dark matter, the mysterious substance making up a quarter of the mass and energy of the universe, might be made from extremely tiny and light particles, new research suggests. This “fuzzy” form of dark matter—called that because these miniscule particles' wavelengths would be smeared out over a colossally huge area—would...

Dec 3, 2019

19 Galaxies Are Apparently Missing Dark Matter. No One Knows Why.

Nineteen newly discovered dwarf galaxies seem to be missing their dark matter, and physicists aren't sure why. The find dramatically increases the number of galaxies that appear to be missing dark matter, the mysterious, invisible stuff that exerts gravitational pull, yet emits no light. Dark matter is thought to be...

Jan 7, 2020

It's Official: Vera Rubin Observatory Named to Honor Dark Matter Scientist

HONOLULU — A U.S. facility designed in part to solve the mysteries of dark matter now officially carries the name of Vera Rubin, the scientist who concluded that the elusive substance must exist. That announcement came Monday (Jan. 6) here, at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, during...

Jan 21, 2020

Self-destructing dark matter may be flooding the sky with gamma-rays, study suggests

Gamma-rays — the brightest, most powerful light in the universe — sail across the sky invisible to human eyes. These exceptionally energetic bursts of radiation flash out of supernova explosions, spark off of colliding neutron stars, and spew forth from the hungriest black holes. When astronomers can catch them with...

Mar 9, 2020

Did German physicists accidentally discover dark matter in 2014?

Could we have already discovered dark matter? That's the question put forth in a new paper published Feb.12 in the Journal of Physics G. The authors outlined how dark matter might be made of a particle known as the d*(2380) hexaquark, which was likely detected in 2014. Dark matter, which...

Mar 20, 2020

Hunting for dark matter — inside the Earth

Dark matter is a hypothetical component to our universe, used to explain many strange behaviors of stars and galaxies. Despite the almost overwhelming evidence that dark matter does indeed exist, we still don't know what it's made of. Detectors scattered around the world have been operating for decades, trying to...

Mar 27, 2020

Scientists use the Milky Way to hunt for dark matter

Scientists studying a mysterious signal from far-off galaxies didn't find dark matter as they'd hoped. But the inventive new technique they used to detect this strange signal, which uses our own galaxy to hunt for dark matter, could elevate the hunt for the elusive material. For decades, scientists have been...

Apr 29, 2020

A long-lost type of dark matter may resolve the biggest disagreement in physics

One of the deepest mysteries in physics, known as the Hubble tension, could be explained by a long-since vanished form of dark matter. The Hubble tension, as Live Science has previously reported, refers to a growing contradiction in physics: The universe is expanding, but different measurements produce different results for...

Sep 10, 2020

Dark matter hunter who found unexpected, giant 'Fermi bubbles' wins $100,000 physics prize

Editor's Note: This story was corrected at 12:30 p.m. E.D.T. to note that Slatyer received $100,000, not $50,000, for her work. Tracy Slatyer, known for hunting dark matter in our galaxy and discovering evidence of an ancient Milky Way explosion, has won a $100,000 New Horizons Prize in Physics. Slatyer,...

Sep 22, 2020

What is dark matter?

Dark matter is a mysterious non-luminous substance making up the vast majority of matter in the universe. Though experts have observed the gravitational effects of dark matter for decades, scientists remain baffled as to its true nature. Who discovered dark matter?In the late 19th century, astronomers began speculating about unseen...

Oct 20, 2020

Astronomers claimed galaxy was 98% dark matter. They were wrong.

Back in 2016, researchers claimed to have found a galaxy made almost completely of dark matter and almost no stars. Now, on closer examination, that claim has fallen apart. The galaxy, Dragonfly 44 (DF44), belongs to a class of mysterious objects known as ultra-diffuse galaxies or UDGs. Researchers have debated...

Oct 23, 2020

Physicists search for imprints left by dark matter haloes as they swoosh through galactic gas

The search for dark matter – an unknown and invisible substance thought to make up the vast majority of matter in the universe – is at a crossroads. Although it was proposed nearly 70 years ago and has been searched for intensely - with large particle colliders, detectors deep underground...

Oct 26, 2020

Distant alien planets could be turned into dark matter detectors

Dark matter could be detected on alien worlds orbiting distant suns, a new study suggests. This elusive form of matter is one of the most frustrating and mysterious aspects of modern astronomy. Thought to account for 80% of all matter in the universe, it is completely invisible, detectable only through...