NEW YORK: A completely new type of fundamental particle may explain the mystery of ‘dark matter’, the missing material that makes up more than 80 per cent of the universe’s mass, according to British scientists.
We can only have an opinion about Dark matter by its gravity which affects stars and galaxies, but has never been directly observed.
University of Southampton researchers believe one reason may be that of dark matter particles’ being much lighter than has previously been proposed, with the mass of only 0.02 per cent of an electron. In the journal Scientific Reports, their findings are published.
Dr James Bateman said: “Our candidate particle sounds crazy, but currently there seem to be no experiments or observations which could rule it out.”
But despite extensive efforts the mysterious material has never been directly observed.
The new research suggests one reason for this may be that dark matter particles are much lighter than has previously been proposed.
The hypothetical particle has a mass only about 0.02 per cent that of an electron. While it does not interact with light, it interacts surprisingly strongly with normal matter, and may not even be able to penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere.
If this is the case, dark matter particles are unlikely to be spotted by Earth-bound detectors.
