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Have physicists discovered dark matter ?

By T.K. Randall
February 20, 2013 · Comment icon

38 comments

Image Credit: NASA/ESA

Hard evidence for the existence of dark matter is expected to be announced within the next two weeks.

Long sought after by scientists, direct evidence for dark matter, the invisible material thought to make up the majority of the mass of the universe, has been a staple research goal for decades. A concept first proposed in the 1930s, dark matter helps to explain how the universe works the way that it does. Up until now it has not been possible to observe dark matter directly, but thanks to the $2bn Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer this could soon change.

"It will not be a minor paper," said project lead investigator Samuel Ting, while others have described the news as a "game-changer".

Physicists may have finally found hard evidence for the existence of dark matter. And reports from the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston say the announcement could come within the next fortnight - if the data holds up.

Source: Huffington Post | Comments (38)

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Recent comments on this story

#29 Posted by keithisco 12 years ago

Can you provide examples? A mutually attractive force that scales with inertia. You are claiming that Gravity is a "Force" not a consequence of Einsteinian Spacetime curvature? Let me ask you a question: what is the speed of propagation of the Gravitic Force, over what distance would you expect attenuation of this force, what is the Scaling of this force relative to Inertia? You give me an Einstein thought experiment (maybe the Elevator accelerating away from the Earth at relativistic speed), and I will show you where it is inconsistent within its own F.O.R

#30 Posted by sepulchrave 12 years ago

You are claiming that Gravity is a "Force" not a consequence of Einsteinian Spacetime curvature? Gravity clearly is a force. Whether it is frame dependent or not is a different question. Let me ask you a question: what is the speed of propagation of the Gravitic Force, That depends on the medium. In a non-polarized vacuum it is be the speed of light. over what distance would you expect attenuation of this force, Any finite distance should give finite attenuation, just like all forces from finite sources. In a dispersionless, sourceless, unpolarized medium the force attenuation law is r-2, wher... [More]

#31 Posted by keithisco 12 years ago

Gravity clearly is a force. Whether it is frame dependent or not is a different question. That depends on the medium. In a non-polarized vacuum it is be the speed of light. Any finite distance should give finite attenuation, just like all forces from finite sources. In a dispersionless, sourceless, unpolarized medium the force attenuation law is r-2, where r is the distance from the source. It seems to be one-to-one. You mean this one? Then OK, please proceed. You say Gravity is CLEARLY a force, any Force suggests an attendant particle carrying a specific type of Charge. Whilst the Graviton is... [More]

#32 Posted by Mikami 12 years ago

Well I'd rather see 2 billion dollars spent on an Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer then being spent on oh I dunno.... Transformers 4?

#33 Posted by shrooma 12 years ago

it seems I don't understand when to use "their" and "there" either. . I hate people who don't know the difference between 'they're' and 'there'. their SO stupid...! :-D

#34 Posted by shrooma 12 years ago

i'm not sure that gravity is a 'force' as such, but rather a consequence of matter distorting the fabric of spacetime. probably why 'gravitons' haven't been found, because there's no 'force' involved, and why it's resistant to unification, because it's an effect rather than a cause.....

#35 Posted by sepulchrave 12 years ago

You say Gravity is CLEARLY a force, any Force suggests an attendant particle carrying a specific type of Charge. No it doesn't. Perturbative quantum field theory suggests that any static force can be expressed as a superposition of virtual force carrying particles. However it is well known that gravity cannot be meaningfully expressed in a quantum mechanical form using perturbation theory. Two immediate possibilities arise: Gravity involves something ``extra'' (i.e. string theory), or Gravity fundamentally cannot be treated with perturbation theory. While #1 is the most popular opinion at the ... [More]

#36 Posted by third_eye 12 years ago

I wish someone would write a new app called "speed googler"

#37 Posted by Pyridium 12 years ago

I will simply say that I believe that dark matter is mass that can not hold an electron. I am speaking of individual quarks and clusters of quarks that are unstable and can not hold an electron. 8% of all matter became very stable atoms of hydrogen. 92% of the matter never formed into atoms, and never will. It takes 3 quarks to form a proton. Quarks come in all sizes and it takes some luck for a proton to be produced, like 8% worth. The big bang spewed out all matter in the form of quarks, there was very little time for the formation of atoms. Unstable quark clusters could not hold the electro... [More]

#38 Posted by ancient astronaut 12 years ago

It will be interesting if this in fact true.

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