DARK matter binds together our galaxy and many others like it when though we cannot see it or directly detect it – but what if the dark matter mystery could be solved using black holes and subatomic particles known as axions?
Dark matter, as far as scientists can tell, is present all throughout the Milky Way galaxy. The mystery substance appears to give the galaxy more mass than astronomers can observe, meaning it is hiding just beyond our sight. Dark matter is called dark precisely because of this – it does not reflect or emit light and is undetectable and unobservable. And yet astrophysicists estimate dark matter accounts for about 85 percent of the observable universe.
Ordinary matter, the kind from which our bodies and houses are built, only adds up to about five percent of the universe’s mass.
So what exactly is dark matter and how can we ever hope to crack the mystery?
Dr Paul Sutter, an astrophysicist at Ohio State University, has proposed the dark matter enigma could be solved with the aid of axions.
Axions are a hypothetical sub-atomic particle, first theorised in 1977, which could explain the motions of galaxies abundant in dark matter.
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See Also:
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(2) NASA scientists in shock: Mysterious ice structure on Saturn moon fuels alien life claims
(4) Momentum Grows for Nuclear Thermal Space Propulsion
(5) Three ways to travel at (nearly) the speed of light
(6) Solar minimum is here: How past solar activity saw temperatures plunge around the world
(7) The Milky Way’s Monster Black Hole Has a Cool Gas Halo — Literally
(8) Merging neutron stars gave solar system heavy elements
(9) Ammonia on Pluto’s surface points to liquid water underground
