Search | New Scientist

The hunt for dark matter: The universe's mysterious gravitational glue

8 February 2023

In pursuit of dark matter, researchers are doing everything from burying vats of xenon deep underground to sending a balloon floating above the Antarctic. When will their creativity pay off?

Antimatter particles could cross the galaxy without being destroyed

12 December 2022

Experiments at CERN's particle collider suggest that antihelium particles created by dark matter in distant space could make it to Earth

Nebula and galaxies in dark space. Elements of this image furnished by NASA.; Shutterstock ID 1140040991; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

The blessing and the curse of the axion’s rise in US particle physics

23 November 2022

Since the Large Hadron Collider turned up nothing in its search for supersymmetry, physicists have turned their attention to the axion, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a self-described superfan of this hypothetical particle

Carlo Rovelli at Cornilia Parker exhibition

Carlo Rovelli on the bizarre world of relational quantum mechanics

10 October 2022

Physicist Carlo Rovelli explains the strange principles of relational quantum mechanics - which says objects don't exist in their own right - and how it could unlock major progress in fundamental physics

Clock in the starry cosmic sky. Leaving time. Time and space. Time concept. Abstraction.; Shutterstock ID 1962091081; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

The cosmos doesn't work to my research schedule – but that's OK

28 September 2022

I work on the dark matter problem knowing the questions I have may be answered long after I die. This is the life I signed up for: to think about interesting ideas and hopefully find out whether any of them are correct, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

In November 2019, researchers were astonished when they viewed its image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. Dark matter is an invisible substance that astronomers believe plays an important role in the formation of galaxies and is thought to comprise 85 percent of the universe?s mass. This discovery not only challenges the ideas of how galaxies form, but also provides evidence that dark matter is real. It shows that dark matter is not always coupled with regular matter in galaxies and that it has its own separate existence. In addition to lacking dark matter, galaxy NGC 1052-DF2 is an anomaly because you can see straight through it. This is called an ultra-diffuse galaxy because it has an extremely low density. As a result of these findings, a team of researchers are hunting for more dark-matter deficient galaxies to better understand the nature of dark matter and the formation of galaxies.

Earth’s surface may be teeming with trillions of dark matter particles

27 September 2022

When dark matter is captured inside a planet or star, much of it sinks to the middle – but if it sometimes bounces off regular matter, there may be huge amounts of it lurking just beneath the surface

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein speaks at SESSION 5 at TED2022: A New Era. April 10-14, 2022, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED

How I gave a TED talk on dark matter

31 August 2022

Giving a TED talk wasn't easy, but I wanted to make sure my audience came away with a better understanding of dark matter, writes Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

W0MN5G This undated NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the galaxy IC 335 in front of a backdrop of distant galaxies. IC 335 is part of a galaxy group containing three other galaxies, and located in the Fornax Galaxy Cluster 60 million light-years away, December 30, 2014. As seen in this image, the disc of IC 335 appears edge-on from the vantage point of Earth. UPI/NASA

Shredded dwarf galaxies may lack dark matter to hold them together

10 August 2022

Many dwarf galaxies torn up by the gravity of nearby objects may not have any dark matter, which doesn't line up with our understanding of the universe – but they may be explained by a controversial alternate model of gravity

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captures the chaotic activity atop a three-light-year-tall pillar of gas and dust that is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars in a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula.

Two smart books probe multiverses, dark matter – and sexual politics

27 July 2022

Is our universe one of a myriad? How hard is it to be a woman in science? Beyond the Big Bang and The Elephant in the Universe explore these questions and more

Gravitational waves, vibrations in spacetime, 3D illustration; Shutterstock ID 784098298; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Strange gravitational wave echoes may let us probe dark matter

27 January 2022

When gravitational waves pass over massive objects, they should create an echo that could allow us to examine objects that we can’t otherwise see, including dark matter