Astronomers Might See Dark Matter by Staring into the Void

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June 09, 2022

Dear Reader, This week, we're gazing into the abyss. Not in a Nietzschean sense, mind you, but rather as part of the long, unrequited quest to know the true nature of dark matter, the mysterious substance that seems to be gravitational glue for galaxies and makes up the bulk of material in the observable universe. Astronomers have historically sought theorized telltale signals of dark matter in crowded regions of the cosmos, chiefly galaxy clusters, where it is thought to be most prevalent. But, as our lead story explains, a new proposal suggests instead that the best chances for spying such signals may come from studies of vast expanses of empty space known as cosmic voids. Elsewhere, we have stories on the Perseverance rover's latest life-seeking peregrinations on Mars, a micrometeoroid strike on the James Webb Space Telescope, and more. Enjoy!

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics @LeeBillings

Dark Matter Astronomers Might See Dark Matter by Staring into the Void Vast reaches of mostly empty space could offer superior odds for detecting the invisible substance thought to make up more than 80 percent of the material in the universe By Anil Ananthaswamy

Astronomy Webb Telescope's Giant Mirror Struck by Micrometeoroid The impact has slightly degraded one of the observatory's mirror segments, but NASA says Webb has sustained no significant damage By Meghan Bartels,SPACE.com

Space Exploration NASA's Perseverance Rover Begins Key Search for Life on Mars Rolling up an ancient river delta in Jezero Crater, the rover starts crucial rock sampling. By Alexandra Witze,Nature magazine

Extraterrestrial Life Scientists Sprout First-Ever Seedlings in Apollo Moon Dirt We now know that plants survive but fail to thrive in lunar soil By Joanna Thompson

Astronomy James Webb Space Telescope Set to Study Two Strange Super-Earths Space agency officials promise to deliver geology results from worlds dozens of light-years away By Elizabeth Howell,SPACE.com

Space Exploration 'Unsustainable': How Satellite Swarms Pose a Rising Threat to Astronomy SpaceX and other companies are still struggling to make their satellites darker in the night sky By Alexandra Witze,Nature magazine

Paleontology Sex Life of One of Earth's Earliest Animals Exposed The first known male appendage from trilobites has been found in a 508-million-year-old fossil By Joanna Thompson

Computing The Weather Myth: Lost Women of Science Podcast, Season 2, Bonus Episode When we first started researching Klára Dán von Neumann, we thought she was "the computer scientist you should thank for your smartphone's weather app." It turns out that's not true By Katie Hafner,The Lost Women of Science Initiative

FROM THE STORE Extraterrestrials and the Search for Life Do aliens exist? The enduring mystery of whether we're alone in the universe is a question that continues to drive scientific study into groundbreaking directions. This collection examines the latest thinking in the search for life, from discussing why we haven't found evidence of aliens so far to determining where and how to conduct the search to opening up the possibilities for what otherworldly life could truly look like.

QUOTE OF THE DAY "Physics taught me that time moves like an arrow, always pointing forward. But I'd argue time is more like a tightly wound spiral. The names and faces are new at each turn, but this feeling that we don't belong has hardly budged." Katrina Miller, on the personal and systemic challenges of being a Black woman in physics

FROM THE ARCHIVE Are Telescopes the Only Way to Find Dark Matter? If the invisible matter does not appear in experiments or particle colliders, we may have to find it in space By Chanda Prescod-Weinstein | April 2022

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