Hypothetical particles called axions could form dense clouds around neutron stars – and if they do, they will give off signals that radio telescopes can detect, say researchers in the Netherlands, the UK and the US. Since axions are a possible candidate for the mysterious substance known as dark matter, this finding could bring us closer to understanding it.
Around 85% of the universe’s mass consists of matter that appears “dark” to us. We can observe its gravitational effect on structures such as galaxies, but we cannot observe it directly. This is because dark matter hardly interacts with anything as far as we know, making it very difficult to detect. So far, searches for dark matter on Earth and in space have found no evidence for any of the various dark matter candidates.
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