Small clouds of dark matter pass through Earth on a regular basis, suggest new calculations. The clouds may be remnants of the first structures to form after the big bang and could be detected by future space missions.
Dark matter interacts gravitationally with normal matter and appears to be seven times more abundant in the universe. But physicists do not know what the mysterious matter is made of or exactly how it is distributed through space.
Nonetheless, they have devised a number of hypothetical dark matter particles that were created in the big bang. These particles formed the universe's first structures, where mysterious "quantum seeds" caused matter to clump more densely in certain spots. Dark matter slid into these spots which grew into structures that merged to become giant clouds - or haloes - with millions or trillions times more mass than the Sun.
Dark matter interacts gravitationally with normal matter and appears to be seven times more abundant in the universe. But physicists do not know what the mysterious matter is made of or exactly how it is distributed through space.
Nonetheless, they have devised a number of hypothetical dark matter particles that were created in the big bang. These particles formed the universe's first structures, where mysterious "quantum seeds" caused matter to clump more densely in certain spots. Dark matter slid into these spots which grew into structures that merged to become giant clouds - or haloes - with millions or trillions times more mass than the Sun.