Scientists Find Evidence of a New Form of Dark Matter Swirling at Center of Our Galaxy

There's a new twist in the hunt for dark matter, the invisible substance believed to make up 85 percent of all the mass in the universe: it may actually be way lighter. In a study published in the journal Physical Review Letters, an international team of researchers propose a new form of the hypothetical substance that's lower in mass compared to other dark matter candidates, which could explain a mysterious phenomenon at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, in a region called the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). "At the center of our galaxy sit huge clouds of positively charged hydrogen, a mystery to scientists for decades because normally the gas is neutral," said study co-lead author Shyam Balaji at King's College London in a statement about the work. "So, what is supplying enough energy to knock the negatively charged electrons out of them?" "The energy signatures radiating from this part of our galaxy suggest that there is a constant, roiling source of energy doing just that," Bala ... Read full article.