14 DAY TRIAL // In a paper submitted for publication in an upcoming issue of the esteemed scientific journal Physical Review Letters, researchers reveal how the most complex search effort aimed at identifying dark matter failed to produce any evidence the stuff actually exists.
The XENON100 experiment, which has been running at Gran Sasso Laboratory, in Italy, for years, has thus far found no data to support the existence of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPS), the stuff believed to make up dark matter.
The elusive stuff is believed to account for 23 percent of the Universe's mass-energy budget, and to interact with baryonic (normal) matter exclusively through the force of gravity. Its effects in forming clusters and superclusters of galaxies are clearly visible, Space reports.
Yet, despite scientists' best attempts, no study was ever able to find conclusive proof that WIMP even exist, let alone study their behavior and properties. The main implication of the new study is that experts may have to start searching for a different form of dark matter.