Elusive Dark Matter To Have More Light Shed On It In Two Weeks, Says MIT Scientist

Dark matter, an elusive cosmic phenomenon, has been the subject of much debate, but a lot of speculation may be put to rest in two weeks. At the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science conference, a scientist from MIT has hinted that data from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) could provide some breakthrough insights into most of our universe's mass.

"It will not be a minor paper," Dr. Samuel Trig, lead scientist on the AMS said about the first batch of data that will come out of particle collector in two weeks. He event went on to reveal that the scientists were so meticulous in their work that the paper had been rewritten some 30 times.

There was no indication that the paper would be a definitive reveal on dark matter, but if the hype is to be believed, then it would represent an important stepping stone to understanding a type of matter that is responsible for most of the universe's mass.

The AMS was installed on the International Space Station back in 2011, and has observed some 25 billion particle-related events. The high-tech piece of machinery can detect positrons and electrons that would be the result of dark matter annihilations in the our galaxy.The paper will be the first study that presents the data, and scientists are feeling pretty positive that it will include some revelations.

"The smoking gun signature is a rise and then a dramatic fall" in the number of positrons with respect to energy, because the positrons produced by dark matter annihilation would have a very specific energy, depending on the mass of the WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) making up dark matter, said Michael Turner, a cosmologist at the University of Chicago, in a Space.com report. "That's the key signature that would arise."

Dark matter cannot be seen or felt, but its presence can be observed indirectly. It does not absorb or emit light or significantly-detectable levels of radiation, meaning that scientists really only know of its presence from its inferred gravitational effects. Dark matter is believed to make up over 80 percent of the mass in the universe - in other words, it outweighs normal matter by a ratio of around six to one.