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Scientists shine light on dark matter: International workshop set in Cleveland
Astronomers and physicists may be close to cracking one of science's biggest mysteries -- what makes up most of the universe.
It's not ordinary matter, the stuff that constitutes planets, stars, galaxies and humans. The bulk of the cosmos is some strange, unseen something. Scientists call it "dark matter," because they can't see it with telescopes or probe it with other conventional means.
No dark matter particles have yet been detected; they're likely so wispy that they can breeze through solid rock. But there are compelling clues that dark matter, whatever it is, exists. Otherwise, whirling galaxies like our Milky Way would fly apart of their own momentum.
Several developments are quickening the pace of the search, giving researchers hope that they are closing in on dark matter's identity. A space telescope put in orbit last summer, and powerful new detectors being sunk deep in mines and beneath polar ice, may soon capture dark matter's tracks. Computer models are pinning down how dark matter has sculpted immense clusters of galaxies. And the operators of a giant underground atom-smasher in Switzerland are poised to try to make "artificial" dark matter.
"All these pictures are beginning to come together now," said Case Western Reserve University astrophysicist Chris Mihos, one of the organizers of adark matter workshop in Cleveland this week.
The meeting will enable top researchers working on different approaches for detecting dark matter to compare notes, plot strategies and possibly plan collaborations.
Pioneer in research
The gathering coincides with a public lecture here by Carlos Frenk, director of Britain's Institute for Computational Cosmology and one of the pioneers of dark matter research.
Frenk is willing to bet that scientists will identify dark matter within five years. "Technology has improved and now there is genuine expectation that discovery may be just around the corner," he said in a telephone interview. "There's a feeling in the air."...
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