Dark matter may have been detected by accident seven YEARS ago

"Dark matter has eluded scientists for decades, but researchers now say it might have been detected by accident seven years ago. Despite making up as much as 85 per cent of the matter in the universe, dark matter is completely invisible to our telescopes. However, an international team of scientists proposes that this mysterious substance might leave a subtle trace in the gravitational waves emitted by colliding black holes."

"If black holes collide while shrouded in dark matter, the ripples they send across the cosmos could carry an 'imprint' of that environment. In a new study, researchers say they have found this telltale imprint in the record of a black hole collision spotted all the way back in 2019. Scientists say more observations are needed before they can claim to have 'detected' dark matter, but their new method could help find even more dark matter signatures."

"Co-author Dr Katy Clough, a researcher at Queen Mary University of London, told the Daily Mail: 'The evidence we found in the data isn't sufficient to be sure of what we are seeing, and we need to check other possibilities. 'However, it is an interesting hint that something might be going on, and because we expect more signals from black hole mergers over the coming years, if this is a true signature of dark matter, we will see it again.'"

"When a pair of black holes (known as a binary) spiral towards each other, they create such intense gravitational forces that they whip up waves in the fabric of spacetime. These ripples stretch and compress reality as they travel the length of the universe, creating tiny disturbances that specialised detectors can pick up on Earth. Dr Clough explains that gravitational waves 'encode information about the event that generated them, in the same way that sound waves encode information about the shape and size of an instrument that is being played.'"

Dark matter makes up a large fraction of the universe’s matter but remains invisible to telescopes. Researchers propose that dark matter could subtly affect gravitational waves produced when black holes collide. If black holes merge while surrounded by dark matter, the resulting spacetime ripples could carry an imprint of that environment. A study reports a possible imprint in data from a black hole collision recorded in 2019. The evidence is not yet sufficient to confirm dark matter, and other explanations must be checked. Future observations of additional black hole mergers could reveal whether the signal repeats, supporting a dark matter signature.

Read at Mail Online