Move over, Large Hadron Collider.
CERN
A new collider at CERN could push particle physics deep into an unexplored microscopic realm.
Bubbles can be modelled as having a negative mass.
Mike Lewinski/Flickr
Forget about dark matter and dark energy, new research suggests that the existence of ‘dark fluid’ may solve some of the biggest mysteries in physics.
Nobody knows for sure where black holes lead to.
Shutterstock
The pull created by a black hole is so strong that if you get too close to one – even if you are travelling away from it at the fastest speed it is possible to go – you will never be able escape.
The existence of wormholes is not forbidden by our current theories of the universe. So we can say that they do exist in theory.
Marcella Cheng/The Conversation NY-BD-CC
A wormhole is like a tunnel connecting two places in space. They would be incredibly useful and are great for science-fiction stories.
The problem is we haven’t found any evidence of them existing.
When galaxies align.
NASA
Exactly 99 years after Einstein’s theory of general relativity was proven right in our own solar system, scientists show that it also holds true for entire galaxies.
An artist’s rendering of how the first stars in the universe may have looked.
N.R. Fuller, National Science Foundation
Signals from the first stars to form in the universe have been picked up by a table-sized detector in a west Australian desert. The find also hints at an early interaction with dark matter.
Artist’s impression of how the first stars in the universe may have looked.
N.R.Fuller, National Science Foundation
New radio technology has managed to detect the first light in the universe.
Image showing where scientists believe dark matter resides in the galaxy cluster Abell 520
– near the hot gas in the middle, coloured green.
Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
Controversial new study challenges contemporary thinking about what the universe is made of.
Looking up in the main chamber at SNOLAB’s facility in the Vale Creighton nickel mine in Sudbury, Ont., a giant spherical neutrino sensor array the size of a 10 storey building is used to detect subatomic particles that pass through the earth.
(Handout)
Deep underground, scientists research subatomic particles from space in a bid to understand the building blocks of our universe.
Map of all matter – most of which is invisible dark matter – between Earth and the edge of the observable universe.
ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech
Cosmologists are heading back to their chalkboards as the experiments designed to figure out what this unknown 84 percent of our universe actually is come up empty.
Scientific fantasy.
PA/Parsons
Both systems are dangerous in the wrong hands.
Gravitational lensing (arcs and streaks in the picture) in the galaxy cluster Abell 370.
NASA/ESA
Galaxies evolve in mysterious way. But a new study offers a fresh approach to understand them.
Part of the new map of dark matter made from gravitational lensing measurements of 26 million galaxies in the Dark Energy Survey.
Chihway Chang/University of Chicago/DES collaboration
We still can’t see the dark matter thought to make up about a quarter of the universe, but at least now we have a map of its structure.
Most modern spiral galaxies, such as NGC 1300, are thought to have loads of dark matter in their outer regions.
NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA)
So where did all the dark matter come from?
Composite image showing the galaxy cluster 1E 0657-56.
Chandra X-Ray Observatory/NASA
Atoms manipulated to be 4000 times larger than usual may be the tool dark-matter hunters have been waiting for.
The temporary laboratory deep in the mine.
Swinburne University
A new highly sensitive detector is being built one kilometre underground in a gold mine to detect the elusive dark matter.
Bokeh Blur Background Subject/www.shutterstock.com
A podcast on darkness: from why it makes us scared, to what kind of nightlife can thrive in the modern city and an update on the hunt for dark matter.
There are two broad ways to measure the expansion of the universe. One is based on the cosmic microwave background, shown here, along with our own galaxy viewed in microwave wavelengths.
ESA, HFI & LFI consortia (2010)
The universe is expanding faster than expected, but we don’t know what’s driving it. Here are a few of the possible explanations, from dark energy to a modification of general relativity.
An artist’s impression of the galaxies found in the ‘Zone of Avoidance’ behind our Milky Way.
International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research
Something mysterious is pulling our Milky Way through space at a much faster rate than expected. So what could it be?
CSIRO’s Compact Array telescope under the Milky Way.
Alex Cherney
Astronomers think they may have found evidence within our galaxy of some of the missing matter thought to make up our universe.