Dark matter is aptly named. It emits no light and interacts with visible matter only via gravity. But dark matter might be only the tip of an invisible universe of unknown forces. This possibility has led to a hunt for “dark photons.” Such photons are analogous to ordinary photons, but they are exchanged among particles of dark matter, and according to some models, they may have mass.
Mars holds her secrets close, planetary-science experts have noted. The Red Planet is crisscrossed with the distinctive tracks of big, long-dead rivers, but we still don’t know what kind of weather fed them. Scientists aren’t sure, because their understanding of the Martian climate billions of years ago remains incomplete according to a ground-breaking 2019 study from the University of Chicago.
The discovery of black holes was the first collision of quantum gravity with general relativity. In 2019, astrophysicists at Western University found evidence for the direct formation of black holes that do not need to emerge from a star remnant. The production of black holes in the early universe, formed from massive seeds aided by gravitational fields soon after the Big Bang, provide scientists with an explanation for what appeared to be the anomaly of extremely massive black holes at a very early stage in the history of our universe.
The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 has proved to be a source of rich speculation for particle physicists. In 2019, researchers proposed that three types of very high-energy Higgs Bosons, dubbed the “Higgs Troika”, may have played a role in ridding the infant universe of most of its antimatter. The Higgs boson may also reveal insights into the nature of dark matter and dark energy, the so-called “dark sector” that comprises 95% of the Universe.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Planet Nine has already been imaged in one of the large sky surveys currently underway, but, if not, it will be hard for it to hide from the Vera Rubin Observatory once it starts operations in a few years,” Caltech’s Michael Brown told The Daily Galaxy. Brown, along with Caltech’s Konstantin Batygin, presented the first evidence that there might be a giant planet tracing a bizarre, highly elongated orbit through the outer solar system in 2016.
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The Point of No Return -Scientists Compare Current Climate Change to Geologic Past (Weekend Feature)
Is Information the Fifth State of Matter in the Universe?
Is Dark Matter Only the Tip of an Invisible Universe of Unknown Forces?
Have Astronomers Detected a Cosmic String from the Dawn of the Universe?
“Their Source a Mystery” -The Wild and Scenic Rivers of Ancient Mars