Tag Archives: dark matter particles

Physicists describe new dark matter detection strategy

The proposed detector would use superfluid helium to explore mass ranges of dark matter particles thousands of times smaller than current large-scale experiments can detect.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Physicists from Brown University have devised a new strategy for directly detecting dark matter, the elusive material thought to account for the majority of matter in the universe. (more…)

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Hunting for Dark Matter’s ‘Hidden Valley’

Berkeley Lab’s Kathryn Zurek wants to make sure we’re looking in the right places.

Kathryn Zurek realized a decade ago that we may be searching in the wrong places for clues to one of the universe’s greatest unsolved mysteries: dark matter. Despite making up an estimated 85 percent of the total mass of the universe, we haven’t yet figured out what it’s made of. (more…)

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New dark matter detector begins search for invisible particles

Scientists heard their first pops last week in an experiment that searches for signs of dark matter in the form of tiny bubbles.

They will need to analyze them further in order to discern whether dark matter caused any of the COUPP-60 experiment’s first bubbles at the SNOLAB underground science laboratory in Ontario, Canada. Dark matter accounts for nearly 90 percent of all matter in the universe, yet it is invisible to telescopes.

“Our goal is to make the most sensitive detector to see signals of particles that we don’t understand,” said Hugh Lippincott, a postdoctoral scientist with Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Lippincott has spent much of the past several months leading the installation of the one-of-a-kind detector at SNOLAB, 1.5 miles underground. (more…)

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Planck All-Sky Images Show Cold Gas and Strange Haze

New images from the Planck mission show previously undiscovered islands of star formation and a mysterious haze of microwave emissions in our Milky Way galaxy. The views give scientists new treasures to mine and take them closer to understanding the secrets of our galaxy.

Planck is a European Space Agency mission with significant NASA participation. (more…)

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