Physics & Math, features and articles | Educational Science

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...

Nov 3, 2020

Cosmic bubbles may have forged dark matter, new theory suggests

Ballooning cosmic bubbles in our early universe may have led to the current abundance of dark matter, the elusive substance that tugs on the stars, yet emits no light, a new study suggests. The theory, described Oct. 9 in the journal The Physical Review Letters, may explain exactly how dark...

Dec 2, 2020

Mystery of galaxy's missing dark matter solved. (And it involves a thief.)

A small, mysterious galaxy 44 million light-years away is finally yielding up its secrets. Revealed last year to have a shockingly low amount of dark matter, the galaxy NGC 1052-DF4 posed a significant challenge to our models of galaxy formation. Those models yet live another day. According to new research,...

Dec 31, 2020

6 ways the hunt for dark matter changed in 2020

Perhaps the most confounding problem in astrophysics is dark matter. Vera Rubin discovered it in the 1970s, showing that galaxies spin much faster than the visible matter in them can explain. Now researchers believe dark matter makes up 85% of the mass of the universe, and is largely responsible for...

Jan 26, 2021

Mysterious 'kick' just after the Big Bang may have created dark matter

One of the lingering mysteries of the universe is why anything exists at all. That's because, in the universe today, matter and its antimatter counterpart should form in equal amounts, and then these two oppositely charged types of matter would annihilate each other on contact. So all the matter in...

Feb 5, 2021

Scientists narrow down the 'weight' of dark matter trillions of trillions of times

Scientists are finally figuring out how much dark matter — the almost imperceptible material said to tug on everything, yet emit no light — really weighs. The new estimate helps pin down how heavy its particles could be — with implications for what the mysterious stuff actually is. The research...

Mar 26, 2021

A 'lump' of dark matter may be ripping apart Taurus' face

The Hyades — a young, V-shaped cluster of stars swooshing through the head of the constellation Taurus — is slowly being ripped apart by an enormous, invisible mass, a new study suggests. This unrest in the bull's head could point to an ancient cache of dark matter left over from...

Apr 1, 2021

Dark matter 'annihilation' may be causing the Milky Way's center to glow

A mysterious glow coming from the center of the Milky Way might be caused by annihilating dark matter — elusive matter that emits no light. According to new research, heavy dark matter particles may be destructively colliding at the center of the galaxy, creating elementary particles, as well as gamma...

Apr 20, 2021

One of Earth's nearest stars may be a dark matter factory

Deep in its searing hot belly, the giant red star Betelgeuse could be producing tons of hypothetical dark matter particles called axions that, if they exist, would give off a telltale signal. A recent search for such a tantalizing emission has turned up empty, but helps physicists place new limits...

May 4, 2021

Astronomers chart invisible ocean of dark matter swirling outside the Milky Way

A mysterious wake of stars, stirred up by a small galaxy that is set to collide with the Milky Way, could be about to unlock the mysteries of dark matter. The trail of stars, located outside the star-flecked spiral arms of the Milky Way's central disk in a region called...

May 28, 2021

Dark matter map reveals new filaments connecting galaxies

A new map of dark matter made using artificial intelligence reveals hidden filaments of the invisible stuff bridging galaxies. The map focuses on the local universe — the neighborhood surrounding the Milky Way. Despite being close by, the local universe is difficult to map because it's chock full of complex...