Physics & Math, features and articles | Educational Science

Dec 3, 2021

Dark matter may spawn more of itself from ordinary matter, like a cosmic ice-9

Dark matter, one of weirdest substances in the universe, just got weirder. Turns out, this mysterious (and invisible) material could multiply by converting garden-variety matter into more dark matter, like some kind of cosmic ice-9, researchers reported Nov. 3 in the journal Physical Review Letters. This type of multiplication is...

Dec 8, 2021

This faraway galaxy may be completely devoid of dark matter

On the surface, a galaxy 250 million light-years from Earth seems like any other, but a deeper look reveals a puzzling quirk: It seems to have no dark matter. If these galaxies are ultimately confirmed to be devoid of dark matter, it could upend fundamental theories about the making of...

Jan 13, 2022

Shredded 'stellar streams' could lead to the Milky Way's missing dark matter

Vast rivers of stars swirl around the Milky Way, cutting against the current of our galaxy's halo in a complex gravitational dance. According to a new study of these so-called stellar streams, their offbeat orbits may be the key to uncovering the troves of invisible dark matter lurking within our...

Feb 15, 2022

Cosmic robbery could explain lack of dark matter in some galaxies

Large galaxies may steal dark matter from smaller galaxies they nearly collide with, new research suggests. Scientists from the University of California, Irvine and Pomona College used computer models to simulate the evolution of a corner of the universe about 60 million light-years across. The new computer models, which weren't...

Apr 9, 2022

Dark matter could be a cosmic relic from extra dimensions

Dark matter, the elusive substance that accounts for the majority of the mass in the universe, may be made up of massive particles called gravitons that first popped into existence in the first moment after the Big Bang. And these hypothetical particles might be cosmic refugees from extra dimensions, a...

Jul 5, 2022

Large Hadron Collider switches on at highest ever power level to look for dark matter

The Large Hadron Collider has been turned back on today (July 5) and is set to smash particles together at never-before-seen energy levels. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator. Located at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, the nearly 17-mile-long (27 kilometer) loop was...

Jan 29, 2023

The universe is slightly hotter than it should be. 'Dark photons' could be to blame.

Observations suggest that the intergalactic gas in our universe is a little hotter than it should be. Recently, a team of astrophysicists have used sophisticated computer simulations to propose a radical solution: an exotic form of dark matter known as dark photons could be heating the place up. These strange...

Apr 27, 2023

Dark matter's secret identity could be hiding in distorted 'Einstein rings'

Researchers may be one step closer to uncovering the true identity of dark matter after studying how light gets bent out of shape in weirdly warped Einstein rings and other gravitationally lensed objects. Researchers estimate that dark matter makes up around 85% of the universe. But although experts have observed...

Jul 18, 2023

James Webb telescope reveals 3 possible 'dark stars' — galaxy-sized objects powered by invisible dark matter

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may have found evidence of a strange and elusive type of star that only existed in the very early universe, when invisible dark matter was one of the only available fuel sources. New research suggests that three of the earliest objects identified as galaxies...

Jul 24, 2023

Bizarre 'relic galaxy' is missing a key component of the universe, and scientists are stumped

Our picture of cosmic evolution could be thrown into doubt by the discovery of a massive galaxy that seems to lack dark matter. Dark matter, which accounts for around 85% of the matter in the universe, seems to be absent from the galaxy NGC 1277, part of the Perseus Cluster...

Jul 25, 2023

Invisible supernovas called 'bosenovas' may be exploding all around us, new research suggests

All around the universe, invisible stars may be dying in high-energy explosions, and new research suggests how scientists could actually detect these unseen catastrophes. In a paper published June 28 in the preprint database arXiv, a team of astrophysicists explored what would happen when boson stars — theoretical large objects...

Aug 28, 2023

Dark matter could be building up inside dead stars — with potentially explosive consequences

Dark matter is thought to inhabit the entire universe but is completely invisible to observations. Now, scientists may be able to detect the mysterious matter's subtle influence as it burrows itself into the hearts of dead stars, altering how they behave. Astronomers have amassed an enormous body of evidence in...

Sep 4, 2023

Unknown ultra-light particles linked to dark matter could be found using atomic clocks

Scientists are using atomic clocks to investigate some of the universe's greatest mysteries, including the nature of dark matter, in a laboratory. In the process, they say they're bringing cosmology and astrophysics down to Earth. The project, which is a collaboration between the University of Sussex and the National Physical...

Sep 18, 2023

Astronomers measure dark matter 'haloes' around hundreds of ancient black holes for 1st time

A team of astronomers has, for the first time, weighed dark matter haloes surrounding actively feeding supermassive black holes in the bright hearts of ancient galaxies. These black hole-powered hearts, or quasars, are often brighter than the combined light of every star in the galaxies around them. These super luminous...

Sep 19, 2023

Our entire galaxy is warping, and a gigantic blob of dark matter could be to blame

A gigantic blob of invisible dark matter has bent our galaxy out of shape, a new study suggests. Scientists initially believed that the Milky Way was a flat disk dominated by two spiral arms trailing stars from a central bar, but measurements taken since the mid-20th century reveal that it's...