Scientists narrow down the 'weight' of dark matter trillions of trillions of times [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

By Tom Metcalfe - Live Science Contributor 15 hours ago



The spiral galaxy NGC 5585, which is nestled on the tail of the Great Bear in the constellation of Ursa Major, is one of many that have revealed the presence of an invisible substance called dark matter.
(Image: © ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Tully; acknowledgment: Gagandeep Anand)


Scientists are finally figuring out how much dark matter — the almost imperceptible material said to tug on everything, yet emit no light — really weighs.

The new estimate helps pin down how heavy its particles could be — with implications for what the mysterious stuff actually is.

The research sharply narrows the potential mass of dark matter particles, from between an estimated 10^minus 24 electronvolts (eV) and 10^19 Gigaelectron volts (GeV) , to between 10^minus 3 eV and 10^7eV — a possible range of masses many trillions of trillions of times smaller than before.

The findings could help dark matter hunters focus their efforts on the indicated range of particle masses — or they might reveal a previously unknown force is at work in the universe, said Xavier Calmet, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom.

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