By Daniel Purizhansky
The question of dark matter and dark energy has been among the most mysterious and endearing in scientific history. 95 percent of the universe is believed to be made up of dark matter, but there has never been any tangible discovery that physically proved its existence. Dark energy is thought to be the reason for why the galaxies of the universe are accelerating away from each other. Just like dark matter, dark energy has never been physically spotted.
Recently, Oxford University researchers released a study that offered a conjecture as to what dark matter and energy are and how they work. Dr. Farnes, a researcher that participated in this study, suggested that dark matter and energy may be a form of fluid that has inverted, negative mass. It therefore also has an inverted gravity which repels all other energy and matter around them, contrary to the way that our gravity works.
Dr. Farnes’s theory also suggests that dark energy and matter are being constantly produced, so even as the universe expands, the amount of dark matter does not decrease and the fluid that he proposed does not become more dilute. He believes that “the outcome seems rather beautiful: dark energy and dark matter can be unified into a single substance, with both effects being simply explainable as positive mass matter surfing on a sea of negative masses.”
The Oxford team plans to test their new conjecture through the Square Kilometer Array, which is currently being built and will be the largest telescope in the world at completion. Until then, Dr. Farnes’s suggestion for how dark matter works can not be proved and remains only speculation.
