Researchers believe mysterious material could contain its own alternate world – complete with shadow Milky Way
Researchers say dark matter could ‘open the door to a whole new world’
Predictions of a ‘mirror world’ that could even contain copies of our own Universe
Researchers have so far failed to prove the existence of ‘dark matter’, the Universe building blocks.
Despite a £1.3 billion ($2bn) experiment on the International Space Station finding glimpses of dark matter, it has never been directly observed.
However, a dramatic new theory claims it could be hiding a ‘mirror world’ that would rewrite our understanding of the Universe.
here could be a mirror world where interesting things are going on,’ James Bullock of the University of California at Irvine told New Scientist.
‘It means nature is much richer than we would otherwise know.’
Earlier this month an international team of scientists says the cosmic ray detector onboard the International Space Station has found the first hint of dark matter.
CERN physicist Pauline Gagnon said the experiments could change the way we view the universe and ‘to get a first hold on dark matter really soon’.
‘That would be terrific, like discovering a completely new continent. It would really open the door to a whole new world,’ said Gagnon.
The ISS team said its first results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, flown into space two years ago, show evidence of a new physics phenomena that could be the strange and unknown matter.
Nobel-winning physicist Samuel Ting, who leads the team at the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva, says he expects a more conclusive answer within months.
The findings are based on an excess of positrons- positively charged subatomic particles.
‘This is an 80-year-old detective story and we are getting close to the end,’ said University of Chicago physicist Michael Turner, one of the giants in the field of dark matter.
‘This is a tantalizing clue and further results from AMS could finish the story.’
A final identification of what makes up the enigmatic material would open up whole new areas of research including the possibility of multiple universes and other dimensions, said physicists.
