Science
Pamela picks up 'dark matter' signs
Stockholm, Sweden | September 21, 2008 12:01:13 AM IST
European astronomers say the mysterious dark matter may have been detected by the Pamela space probe. Italian physicist Mirko Boezio told a cosmology conference in Stockholm Pamela detected a burst of high-energy protons coming from the center of the Milky Way that had the radiation signature expected of dark matter. This is very exciting research, said Professor Carlos Frenk of Britain's Durham University, Dark matter holds the key to the evolution of the universe but it has never been detected before. Dark matter is thought to make up as much as 85 percent of the universe but has never actually been observed until now, The Times of London said Sunday. Physicists have speculated since the 1930s that the visible matter that exists as stars and planets makes up a small fraction of the universe while the rest exists as strange particles that do not react to visible matter, can't be seen and pass through solid objects. (UPI)
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