Tag: astronomy, dark matter
According to a recent article in the New York Times, a team of astrophysicists at the University of Portsmouth has composed a list of 70 potential weapons to battle against the issue of dark matter.
The research, led by astrophysicist Salvatore Vitale, aims to identify a group of high-energy cosmic particles capable of colliding with dark matter particles and transporting them out of the cosmos. The effort is part of the larger aim of better understanding and addressing the enigmatic substance responsible for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe’s mass.
The team, which includes researchers from several other European institutions, is using a combination of theoretical calculations and computer simulations to construct the list, cross-referencing it with existing experiments and simulations previously conducted in the field. According to the article, the list includes both familiar particles like photons and less commonly studied particles like neutrinos, some of which may have energies as high as 10,000 GeV, or gigaelectron volts.
Though it targets the difficult-to-investigate realm of dark matter, the project does not involve any space missions or ground equipment, but rather an intensive computational effort involving various international teams.
The article also points out that Vitale’s research stands apart in the field. Many other researchers aim to directly detect dark matter, but Vitale’s team aims to find a new, indirect weapon – with the hope that doing so may not only illuminate dark matter, but also shed light on several other enigmatic and as-yet unexplained phenomena in the universe.
As underlined by the article, the results of the research, though unlikely to show up in any visible manifestations in our everyday lives, may provide groundbreaking insights into the fundamental workings of the universe.
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