Dark Matter May Be Colliding With Atoms Inside You Right Now

Dark Matter May Be Colliding With Atoms Inside You Right Now

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Invisible dark matter particles may regularly pass through our bodies, and dozens to thousands of these particles may be colliding with atoms inside us every year, according to a new calculation. Dark matter is one of the greatest scientific mysteries of our time — an invisible substance thought to make up five-sixths of all matter in the universe. Scientists think it might be composed of things called weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, that interact normally with gravity but very weakly with all the other known forces of the universe.

Although dark matter particles are thought to interact only very rarely with normal matter, Earth and everything on it should be hurtling through a dense sea of dark matter, with billions of these particles rushing through us every second. Though the large majority of these particles would pass straight through us without hitting any of the atoms that make up our bodies, a few collisions would be likely. And the aftermath of such impacts could shed light on dark matter’s nature.