{"id":6756,"date":"2022-07-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/14-07-2022\/dark-matter\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T13:29:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T07:59:04","slug":"dark-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/14-07-2022\/dark-matter","title":{"rendered":"Dark Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>In News<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Recently, <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ)<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> in South Dakota in the U.S. is being considered as the most sensitive Dark Matter Detector in the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Universe and Dark Matter<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Many physicists strongly believe that the <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>entire visible part of the universe forms only 5%<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> of all matter in it. They believe the rest is made up of dark matter and dark energy.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Once this was convincingly demonstrated through <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>various indirect observations and calculations<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">, experiments started being set up to hunt for these elusive particles.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; border: none; table-layout: fixed; width: 624px;\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"background-color: #fff2cc; vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid #000000;\">\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Fundamental Forces<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">All interactions in the universe are a result of <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>four fundamental forces<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> acting on particles:<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: circle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Strong nuclear force,\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: circle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Weak nuclear force,\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: circle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Electromagnetic force and\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: circle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Gravitation.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>About Dark Matter<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Dark matter is made up of <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>particles that do not have a charge.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> They do not interact through electromagnetic interactions.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">These are particles that are <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>dark<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">, namely because they <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>do not emit light<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">, which is an electromagnetic phenomenon, and <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>matter<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> because they <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>possess mass like normal matter<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> and hence interact through gravity.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Detecting dark matter:<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: circle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It is difficult to measure the evidence of dark matter.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: circle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Gravitational force<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> is extremely weak. A particle that interacts so weakly becomes rather elusive to detect.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: circle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This is because interactions from <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>other known particles could drown out signals <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">of dark matter particles.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: circle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>chamber of the LZ detector<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> can contain only one gram of dust if it is to detect a dark matter particle.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: circle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This is the extent to which researchers have to go to rule out unwanted signals coming from other entities.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Recent Studies on Dark Matter<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Underground or accelerator experiments including the world&#8217;s largest accelerator, the <\/span><\/span><\/span><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/13-04-2023\/large-hadron-collider-lhc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Large Hadron Collider (LHC)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">, have failed so far.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Scientists considered <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Hawking&#8217;s 1974 Theory<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> of the existence of primordial black holes, born shortly after the Big Bang, not completed.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Gravitational lensing effect<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> to look for primordial black holes between Earth and the Andromeda galaxy.<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: circle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Gravitational lensing was first observed by Arthur Eddington in 1919. It is an effect of Einstein\u2019s theory of general relativity.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: circle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Gravitational lensing<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> is the phenomenon that occurs when a huge amount of matter, such as a massive galaxy or cluster of galaxies, creates a gravitational field that distorts and magnifies the light from objects behind it, but in the same line of sight.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: circle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Massive objects like galaxies can bend light significantly, producing multiple images, this is called strong lensing. Lighter objects like stars or black holes bend light less, and this is called microlensing.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: circle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>XENON1T experiment:<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> It uses the dual-phase (liquid\/gas) xenon technique and is located underground at the Laboratory Nazionali del Gran Sasso of INFN, Italy.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Dark Energy<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Dark Energy is a hypothetical form of energy that <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>exerts a negative, repulsive pressure<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">, behaving like the opposite of gravity.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It has been hypothesised to account for the observational properties of distant type <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Ia supernovae<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">, which show the universe going through an accelerated period of expansion.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Like Dark Matter, Dark Energy is not directly observed, but rather inferred from observations of gravitational interactions between astronomical objects.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: disc;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Dark Energy makes up <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>72% of the total mass-energy density<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> of the universe. The other dominant contributor is Dark Matter, and a small amount is due to atoms or baryonic matter.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Source<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">: <\/span><\/span><\/span><a style=\"text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/technology\/the-search-for-dark-matter\/article65628063.ece\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-size: 13pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Book Antiqua',serif;\"><span style=\"color: #1155cc;\"><u>TH<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News Recently, LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) in South Dakota in the U.S. is being considered as the most sensitive Dark Matter Detector in the world.\u00a0 Universe and Dark Matter Many physicists strongly believe that the entire visible part of the universe forms only 5% of all matter in it. They believe the rest is made up [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[26,43],"class_list":["post-6756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-gs-3","tag-space"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}