Zeenews Bureau
Geneva: In what could be termed as a step closer to unraveling one of the universe’s greatest mysteries, scientist claimed that the $2 billion cosmic ray detector on the International Space Station may have found the first significant hint of dark matter.
The foremost results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer show proof of a new physics phenomena that could be the strange and unknown matter, said an international team at the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva on Wednesday.
Nobel-winning physicist Samuel Ting, who leads the team, said he looks forward to a more conclusive answer within months.
The data is being collected and analyzed at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, along the Swiss-French border
The findings are based on seeing an excess of positrons - positively charged subatomic particles.
While dark matter accounts for most of the mass in the Universe, unraveling the mystery of it could help scientists better understand the composition of our universe and, more particularly, what holds galaxies together.
"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."
