Space Station Collects Clues on Universe’s Dark Matter
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The European Organization for Nuclear Research said it has data that could signal the presence of dark matter, an elusive unseen target that physicists believe makes up as much as a quarter of the universe.
Dark matter is mass that scientists can’t detect directly, but whose existence is inferred through its gravitational pull on visible matter, such as planets. Using a collector mounted on the International Space Station for more than a year, scientists at the CERN research institute gathered data on particles, called positrons, they believe may be expelled when dark matter collides in a burst of energy and is destroyed.