A cosmic ray detector on the International
Space Station has found the first real hint
of dark matter--that elusive substance scientists
think outnumbers normal matter by a ratio
of 5 to 1.
And that’s why this is such an important
story, we can detect all the normal matter
that makes up everything in our known universe
including you and me - but we’ve come to
realize that there’s this invisible stuff
- or at least invisible to the detection technology
we have so far - and this stuff fills space
and exerts gravitational pull on galaxies.
So it’s been a big challenge just to figure
out that dark matter exists at all, let alone
figuring out how to detect it and actually
finding some by building this $2 billion Alpha
Magnetic Spectrometer.
But, for the first time, we have some kind
of confirmation of actual dark matter.
Now, the scientists aren’t anywhere near
ready to conclusively say they’ve definitely
found dark matter, but the initial data seems
to be confirming that it’s there and they’re
confident that over the next two decades aboard
the space station, the experiment’s smooth
operation so far indicates it should produce
enough data to settle the dark matter mystery
once and for all.
