https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... e-universe
Dark matter: one last push to crack the biggest secret in the universe
Scientists are pinning hopes on elaborate detectors to track the elusive material that holds galaxies together
Deep underground, scientists are closing in on one of the most elusive targets of modern science: dark matter. In subterranean laboratories in the US and Italy, they have set up huge vats of liquid xenon and lined them with highly sensitive detectors in the hope of spotting subatomic collisions that will reveal the presence of this elusive material.
However, researchers acknowledge that the current generation of detectors are reaching the limit of their effectiveness and warn that if they fail to detect dark matter with these types of machines, they could be forced to completely reappraise their understanding of the cosmos.
“Dark matter accounts for around 85% of all the universe’s mass but we have not been able to detect it so far – despite building more and more powerful detectors,” said physicist Professor Chamkaur Ghag of University College London. “We are now getting close to the limits of our detectors and if they do not find dark matter in the next few years, we may have to accept there is something very wrong with the way we think about the universe and about gravity.”
Yep. Quite a quandary they face.
The hunt for dark matter began last century when astronomers found that galaxies appeared to be rotating too quickly to remain stable. Observations indicated they must have masses 10 times greater than their visible contents – stars, planets and dust clouds – otherwise they would tear themselves apart.
What’s truly sad is that this last paragraph is an outright LIE. Last century astronomers were presented with a perfectly reasonable explanation for the rotation curve of galaxies … one that did not involve missing mass … one that could in fact be demonstrated in our labs and in the validated computer codes of the time. One that did not involve any … much less countless gnomes. But they refused to even try to explore it. They dismissed it out of hand. I’m convinced they did this because they wanted gnomes which would translate into decades of EXPENSIVE experiments that would result in lots of nice houses, cars, vacations, educations, etc for them and their children. And now where are they? Continuing from the article …
If Lux-Zeplin and XENONnT fail to find Wimps, the two teams of scientists will have one final chance to use current technology to find them – by joining forces to create one final super-large detector that would contain tens of tonnes of xenon, a rare and expensive gas to isolate, and which would be run for several years.
And if that last-chance detector fails to find dark matter, scientists would be stumped. Making their machines even more sensitive would result in them being swamped by signals triggered by another type of subatomic particle, the neutrino, which rain down on the Earth in their trillions every second. Other approaches would have to be taken.
… back where they began (although a lot … as a group … wealthier). A success ... in their minds.