Dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries in the universe. Scientists have been studying it for years, but there are still many unanswered questions. This article will discuss some of the most puzzling aspects of dark matter. What is it made of? What does it do? Why can’t we see it? These are just a few of the questions scientists are still trying to answer. Stay tuned, as we may solve some of these mysteries in the near future!
Contents
What Is Dark Matter?
Researchers are still unclear about dark matter, and it’s the first and perhaps most perplexing problem. Initially, some researchers speculated that the missing mass in the universe consisted of tiny faint stars and black holes. Still, detailed observations have not discovered nearly enough such objects to explain dark matter’s role. Instead, the current front-runner for dark matter’s mantle is a hypothetical particle dubbed a Weakly Interacting Massive Particle, or WIMP, which would resemble a neutron but be between 10 and 100 times heavier than a proton. Yet, this notion has only prompted more queries.
Can We Detect It?
If dark matter is composed of WIMPs, they should be all around us, hard to detect yet somewhat perceptible. So why haven’t we discovered any yet? Although dark-matter particles would not physically interact with ordinary matter, there is always a probability that one will hit a proton or an electron as it passes through space. So, scientists have conducted multiple studies to study vast numbers of typical particles deep underground, where they are protected from interfering radiation that might mimic a dark matter-particle collision.
The problem is that, despite decades of searching, none of these detectors has yet produced evidence for WIMPs. The Chinese PandaX experiment reported the latest WIMP nondetection earlier this year. It appears likely that dark-matter particles are considerably smaller than WIMPs or lack the characteristics that would allow them to be researched easily.
Do Dark Forces Exist?
There’s also the possibility that dark matter has characteristics similar to ordinary matter, which may be affected by forces such as gravity. Some researchers have looked for “dark photons,” like electromagnetic force photons, except they would only affect dark matter particles. Physicists in Italy are getting ready to smash a beam of electrons and positrons into a diamond, as reported by Live Science previously. The electron-positron combinations might annihilate and produce one of the strange force-carrying particles, potentially opening up a brand-new territory in the cosmos.
What Are The Properties Of Dark Matter?
Dark matter was discovered through its interactions with normal materials, suggesting that it makes its presence known in the cosmos through this method. However, when researchers seek knowledge about the genuine nature of dark matter, they have little to work with. According to specific theories, dark-matter particles should be their antiparticles, implying that two dark-matter particles would disintegrate upon collision. Since 2011, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) mission on the International Space Station has been looking for evidence of this destruction, and it has already documented millions of occurrences. However, scientists aren’t sure whether these are caused by dark matter, and the signal hasn’t yet aided in their identification.
Does Dark Matter Exist In Every Galaxy?
Because it outweighs ordinary matter by so much, dark matter is often regarded as the organizing force that structures large structures such as galaxies and galactic clusters. So, it was surprising when astronomers revealed this summer that NGC 1052-DF2, a universe with virtually no dark matter, had been discovered. A galaxy does not need dark matter to exist. However, over the summer, a separate team released an analysis that stated van Dokkum’s team had improperly measured the distance to the galaxy, implying that its visible matter was significantly dimmer and lighter than previously believed.
Could Dark Matter Have An Electric Charge?
According to a signal that began at the outset of time, some physicists have said that dark matter might have an electrical charge. Stars in the universe’s infancy released radiation with a wavelength of 21 centimeters just 180 million years after the Big Bang. It was subsequently taken up by a chilly hydrogen environment that existed simultaneously. When this radiation was discovered in February, its pattern indicated that the hydrogen was considerably colder than anticipated by scientists. According to Harvard astrophysicist Julian Muñoz, dark matter with an electrical charge might have drawn heat away from the all-pervasive hydrogen, almost similar to ice cubes in lemonade.
Can Particles Decay In Dark Matter?
Neutrons are ordinary matter particles with a restricted existence. A single neutron disconnected from an atom will decay into a proton, an electron, and a neutrino after approximately 14.5 minutes. However, according to tests presented in a July research published in the Physical Review Letters, two different experimental setups give somewhat different decays’ lifespans by around 9 seconds.
According to the researchers, this finding should provide confirmation of a recent theory that if 1% of the time, some neutrons decay into dark-matter particles, it explains the discrepancy. Christopher Morris from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and his team searched for a dark-matter signal but came up empty handed. According to their research, if dark matter is made up of particles that decay, their study should have found evidence.
Does Dark Matter Exist?
Given the difficulties that scientists have had in finding and describing dark matter, a reasonable person could ask if they’re going about it the wrong way. For many years, a vocal minority of physicists have maintained that our theories of gravity are incorrect and that the fundamental force works differently on large scales than we expect. These theories, also known as “modified Newtonian dynamics” or MOND models, propose that there is no dark matter.
Instead, the incredible speeds at which stars and galaxies appear to rotate around one another are due to gravity behaving unexpectedly. Despite this, the naysayers have yet to persuade the greater community of their ideas. And what’s more, even if they’re right, it’s not immediately clear how MOND could be modified to accommodate the recent finding that dark matter and ordinary matter seem to interact with one another.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are still many unanswered questions about dark matter. While scientists have made some progress in understanding this strange substance, there is still much that remains a mystery. Hopefully, with continued research, we will eventually unlock all the secrets of dark matter. But, until then, we can only speculate about what this fascinating substance might be.