Tag: dark matter

A new theoretical study has proposed a novel mechanism for the creation of supermassive black holes from dark matter. The international team find that rather than the conventional formation scenarios involving ‘normal’ matter, supermassive black holes could instead form directly from dark matter in high density regions in the centres of galaxies. The result has key implications for cosmology in the early Universe.

A team of researchers believes that they have found a natural explanation for dark matter and a number of other scientific oddities that have so far defied explanation, but their work hinges on the existence of a new theoretical subatomic particle as well as an entirely new “warped fifth dimension” of the universe. #5D #fifthdimension #darkmatter

Researchers at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) have recently carried out a search for invisible axion dark matter using a multiple-cell cavity haloscope that they designed. Their results compared favorably to those of previous haloscope-based axion dark matter searches, highlighting the potential of the instrument they created for both dark matter searches and other physics research. #darkmatter

Earth & Space News March 28, 2015: Space weather; Earthquake watch; NASA’s Hubble, Chandra Find Clues that May Help Identify Dark Matter; Best View Yet of Dusty Cloud Passing Galactic Centre Black Hole; More Evidence for Groundwater on Mars; Global weather; Thunderstorms Soak Chile Desert in 7 Years of Rain in 12 hours; Near record cold in Cincinnati

Through the analysis of light from distant galactic clusters, astronomers have detected a mysterious signal that they’re having a hard time explaining. Although the signal is weak, could it be the much sought-after direct evidence for dark matter? Dark matter pervades the entire universe and makes up for the bulk of its mass, but what is it? We know it’s out there and oodles of indirect evidence for its presence, but seeing a direct signal has so far proven elusive.

The hidden tendrils of dark matter that underlie the visible Universe may have been traced out for the first time. Cosmology theory predicts that galaxies are embedded in a cosmic web of “stuff”, most of which is dark matter. Astronomers obtained the first direct images of a part of this network, by exploiting the fact that a luminous object called a quasar can act as a natural “cosmic flashlight”. The quasar illuminates a nearby gas cloud measuring two million light-years across.