DARK MATTER

The Search for Dark Matter Is Dramatically Expanding

Charlie Wood

Quanta Magazine | November 23, 2020

Infographic showing the ranges of possible masses of WIMPs, axions, ultralight dark matter, sub-GeV dark matter and primordial black holes, which are five different candidates for dark matter.

Dark matter could be made up of particles with a vast range of possible masses.

Ever since astronomers reached a consensus in the 1980s that most of the mass in the universe is invisible — that “dark matter” must glue galaxies together and gravitationally sculpt the cosmos as a whole — experimentalists have hunted for the nonluminous particles.