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We know it's out there. It makes up a sizable chunk of the universe. We see evidence of it in stellar objects through modern scientific tests. And yet we can't find it anywhere. What is this mysterious substance? It's helium, circa the mid-nineteenth century. More »
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These red dots represent some of the earliest galaxies known to astronomy. Located ten billion light-years away, they're only a few billion years older than the Big Bang. Their presence explains why we're now surrounded by massive elliptical galaxies. More »
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This galaxy cluster is nicknamed El Gordo, which means "The Fat One" in Spanish. Located seven billion light-years away, it's the biggest cluster ever found at that distance — and it's resounding proof that dark matter is everywhere in the cosmos. More »
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Although dark matter's exact nature is still unknown, what we do know is that the amount of gravity in the universe is greater than the amount of visible matter that it corresponds to. This anomaly could be explained by some unseen source of extra mass, which provides the additional gravity that helps hold galaxies together. And the missing matter behind this extra mass has been dubbed dark matter. More »
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The galaxy cluster at the center of this image has so much gravitational force that it warps and distorts our view of everything behind it. This photo offers a particularly dramatic example: look at that twisted galaxy on the right. More »
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Dark matter almost certainly exists - otherwise, galaxy clusters wouldn't have sufficient gravity to hold themselves together. It was hoped dwarf galaxies could confirm the leading dark matter theories. But a new study has drawn a big, frustrating blank. More »
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The Bolshoi Simulation is a massive, incredibly detailed model of everything, providing a comprehensive simulation of the universe's 14 billion year history. Scientists are now exploring the simulation, and we've got some of the most breathtaking results of their efforts. More »
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A nearby dwarf galaxy, Sagittarius, has delivered two "punches" to our Milky Way galaxy. These impacts are what gave the Milky Way its spiraling arms. And we may take another hit soon. More »
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If you're going to name a cluster of galaxies after the mythological character who unleashed evil on the world, this particular is a pretty good choice. It's a cacophonous, mixed-up mishmash of four older clusters, plus plenty of dark matter. More »
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In this week's "Ask a Physicist," we'll explore an awesome mash-up of exoplanets, supercivilizations, and dark matter, and try to figure out whether the "missing mass" in the universe is really advanced aliens with a cloaking device. More »
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There's no reason at all why something as mysterious and cosmic should sync up with the changing of seasons on Earth...and yet now two independent sources claim that's exactly what it's doing. Just what is going on here? More »
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On its final flight, the space shuttle Endeavour will carry the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. It's a state-of-the-art particle detector that provides perhaps our best chance to find dark matter particles, and in this video NASA scientists explain how it works. More »
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An experiment designed to catch a few WIMPs, the particles that are meant to make up dark matter, has failed to detect any sign of them. More »
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Neutrinos are a notorious thorn in physicists' sides, as the majority of them go missing while traveling from the Sun to our detectors on Earth. We're alsomiscounting their antimatter counterparts, which could mean big things for our understanding of physics. More »
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Dark matter might not just making the universe more massive than it should be, it might also be making the universe more populous than it should be. Find out how. More »
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Hydrogen is the simplest of all atoms, and it's easily the most abundant, accounting for 90% of all atoms in the universe. And this fundamental building block may have something to tell us about one of the universe's great mysteries. More »
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Dark matter is our best explanation for why galaxies stay together when they don't seem massive enough to keep up gravitational attraction. But now a largely-dismissed alternative theory has some actual proof backing it up. This could get complicated. More »
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Based on how gravity affects the gases at the edge of our galaxy, we should have a satellite galaxy located about 26,000 light-years away...except nobody's ever seen it. This might be because it's composed almost entirely of dark matter. More »
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Physics is still grappling with two basic questions about the nature of matter: why is there more matter than antimatter, and where and what is all the dark matter? Meet the hypothetical X particle, the potential answer to both questions. More »
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Every now and again, you'll read a science story claiming the "best picture of dark matter" ever. If it's so dark, how can you see it? In this week's "Ask a Physicist", we'll find out. More »
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Today physicists announced that they may have found the key to explaining dark matter in the universe. It all has to do with the potential discovery of a "sterile neutrino." More »
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Check out this just-released picture of globular cluster NGC 1806, created to look for evidence of MACHOs (massive compact halo objects) but none were found. No doubt this will spark yet another round of complaints about the decline of manliness. More »
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The search continues for dark matter, the mysterious stuff that makes up the vast majority of all matter in the cosmos. Although nowadays they're most likely undetectable subatomic particles, in the universe's beginnings they could have formed super-explosive dark stars. More »
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Yesterday, we presented a comprehensive guide to the world of subatomic particles, exploring all the known elementary and composite particles. But now it's time to put certainty to one side and explore the wild, mind-bending world of undiscovered particles.

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We're pretty much certain that dark matter exists, but we're still working to nail down precisely what dark matter is. One leading candidate, known as the WIMP, might be trapped inside the Sun, sucking heat away and altering fusion reactions. More »
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We just snapped our best photo yet of dark matter, but we still don't know just what it is. Now we might have a way to (literally) shed some light on dark matter...with an assist from super-massive black holes. More »
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That heart-shaped purple glow amidst that cluster of galaxies isn't bursting with love — it's dark matter, as measured by NASA's Cosmic Lens, and it may be our best clue to the mysterious nature of dark energy. More »
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Has proof of the existence of Dark Matter been found? And, more strangely, has it been found in a mine in the middle of Minnesota, instead of deep space? The answer to both questions may turn out to be yes... More »
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The mooted risks of the Large Hadron Collider are all worthwhile if it uncovers evidence of the Higgs boson, right...? But what if something else found that proof first, and without all the sturm-und-drang? More »
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Researchers are on the lookout for a new type of star, one composed of matter that behaves differently from the kind we're familiar with. If these stars exist, they could solve one of the biggest mysteries astrophysicists have confronted. More »
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This week, the Sanford Lab dedicated an underground science fortress to research dark matter. The lab is 5,000 feet underground in the mountains of South Dakota, shielded from cosmic radiation. More »
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Almost six billion years ago, two of the largest gravitational structures in the universe slammed into each other with velocities in the millions of miles per hour. Galactic clusters are collections of galaxies (sometimes thousands of them) that seem to hang together in violation of the known laws of physics. Not only did this ancient collision result in a stunningly beautiful image, but it's given astrophysicists an important clue about the nature of dark matter. More »
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Opening in select U.S. theaters over the next few weeks, Dark Matter is a movie about physics gone wrong. No, the Hadron Collider doesn't punch a hole in reality. Instead, it's about a much smaller and more personal explosion that occurs when a young Chinese graduate student named Liu Xing comes to the U.S. to study cosmology, and finds out that science isn't about truth but politics. Based on a true story, Dark Matter explores what happens when Liu Xing's radical theories of dark matter in the early 1990s clash with those of his academic adviser. When he refuses to toe the line, his adviser disowns him and Liu Xing hurtles towards personal destruction. The premise is intriguing, and writer Billy Shebar based his main character's ideas on real theories about superstrings. More »
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