Universe is full of mysteries and promises to provide enough for those who want to explore new dimensions. The beauty and secrets hidden inside space always seem challenging modern technology, which humans accept with a single clue granted.
In the midst of the ongoing quest, the mystery of dark matter is still waiting for an answer. Previous attempts made have turned up nothing important and two dozen research teams are still plumbing the darkness of idled mines, waiting the moment when a WIMP, the leading dark matter candidate, hit the atomic nucleus. The gravitational pull existing between galaxies and stars is a strong evidence of its existence.
Dark matter refers to hypothetical or unknown composition that does not emit or reflect light to be observed directly, but whose presence can be inferred from gravitational effect on the visible matter and thought to constitute 30% of the existing matter while dark energy makes up the rest of 70%.
Scientists from all over the world are set to detect the nature of dark matter with new and advance technologies. The heavy financial investment and complexity in using dark matter detectors poses serious problem in solving this task.
Subterranean experiments are humming in an idled iron mine in Minnesota and in caverns in Canada, England, France, Italy, Japan, and Russia. Among various searches, CDMS, lies at the top and recently National Science Foundation have invested about $21 million since fiscal year 2000 on six projects including CDMS and XENON10.
As far as space is concern, NASA is ready to launch its GLAST telescope next year to observe any dark matter collisions.
Image Credit: Arizona
Via: Yahoo!
