// ORBITAL LOGISTICS AND PROPULSION TERM
Dark Matter
Dark matter is a type of matter that does not emit, absorb, or reflect light, making it invisible and detectable only through its gravitational effects on visible matter. It's a major component of the universe.
TECHNICAL DEFINITION
A hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with electromagnetic radiation, making it undetectable by direct observation, but whose gravitational effects are inferred from galactic rotation curves and gravitational lensing.
BACKGROUND
Outer space, or simply space, is the expanse that exists beyond Earth's atmosphere and between celestial bodies. It contains ultra-low levels of particle densities, constituting a near-perfect vacuum of predominantly hydrogen and helium plasma, permeated by electromagnetic radiation, cosmic rays, neutrinos, magnetic fields and dust. The baseline temperature of outer space, as set by the background radiation from the Big Bang, is 2.7 kelvins.
READ MORE ON WIKIPEDIASYNONYMS & ALIASES
- Invisible matter
- Non-baryonic matter
- Exotic matter
- Missing mass
USAGE NOTE
Dark matter is believed to make up a significant portion of the universe's mass.
DEVELOPERS
Organizations developing technology related to Dark Matter.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research operates the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Experiments like ATLAS and CMS search for new particles that could be candidates for dark matter by colliding protons at extremely high energies.
A U.S. Department of Energy laboratory that hosts and participates in multiple experiments to directly detect dark matter particles, such as the Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (SuperCDMS) and the Axion Dark Matter Experiment (ADMX).
A Canadian underground science laboratory located 2 km underground. Its deep location provides a low-background environment, ideal for sensitive experiments searching for rare interactions from dark matter particles, such as the DEAP-3600 and PICO experiments.
The world's largest underground laboratory, operated by Italy's National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). It hosts several leading dark matter experiments, including XENONnT, which uses liquid xenon to search for interactions with WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles).
The U.S. space agency operates space telescopes that study the cosmological effects of dark matter. Missions like the Hubble, Chandra, and James Webb Space Telescopes observe gravitational lensing and galaxy distributions to map the presence of dark matter in the universe.
ESA develops and operates space missions to study the cosmos. The Euclid mission is specifically designed to create a 3D map of the universe to investigate the nature of dark matter and dark energy by observing billions of galaxies.
A U.S. national lab that plays a central role in designing and building sensitive detectors for dark matter research. It is the lead laboratory for the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment, one of the world's most sensitive direct-detection experiments for dark matter.
The deepest underground laboratory in the United States, located in a former gold mine in South Dakota. It hosts major physics experiments, including the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter experiment and the DUNE neutrino experiment.