229
Scientists are working on an ambitious experiment to find dark matter in space, hoping it will solve one of the universe's greatest mysteries. For years, experts have been baffled by the mysterious force that is invisible but makes up around 85% of all the mass of the known universe. Now a team from the University of Southampton has developed a concept they believe could improve our understanding of dark matter. The experts have begun testing a device that measures tiny signals by firing lasers through sheets of graphite levitating in zero gravity.
Its lead physicist, Tim Fuchs, said it could be the first step towards more space-based experiments that could detect it. He added: “There are many theories about what dark matter might be, but no experiment on Earth has ever come close to detecting it. “Dark matter remains one of the fundamental questions that scientists are still trying to answer – it determines the structure of our universe, but it has not yet been detected. “Our experiment is unlike anything before: we will levitate graphite between magnets, which in zero gravity are incredibly sensitive to small forces.
"If there is a high enough density of dark matter, the dark 'wind' will gently push our levitated particles by an amount that we can measure, detecting it for the first time."
Dark matter, first discovered in the 1930s, doesn't emit, absorb or reflect light in any significant amount, making it impossible to detect with telescopes. But scientists know it exists because of its gravitational influence on visible matter, Fuchs said.
"The motion of stars and galaxies in the Universe can only be explained by the gravitational influence of dark matter," he added.
The experimental device will be sent into space on board a new satellite being developed between Space South Central and the Universities of Southampton, Portsmouth and Surrey called Jovian-1. The Jovian-1 team is exploring options for launching the satellite early next year. Southampton’s dark matter probe weighs just 1,5kg and, once launched, will fly around Earth in low Earth orbit for two years to conduct tests.
Fuchs added: “There are theories that suggest that the rate of dark matter interaction may actually be so high that it cannot penetrate our atmosphere or through the mountains under which the detectors have been built.
"This could explain why many large Earth-based experiments that were built to detect dark matter have not detected any convincing signals. "Our mission is the first of its kind to use this levitation technology in space, and we hope it will serve as proof that we can detect dark matter above Earth."
