A new hunt for dark matter has begun in an old gold mine, nearly 1 mile underground
Deep in an old gold mine, in a vat of molten xenon, a new hunt has begun for dark matter — the mysterious thing that makes up about 85% of all matter in the universe. No one knows what dark matter actually is. Scientists know it exists because they can measure how its gravity affects distant galaxies, but they have never detected it directly. That’s the goal of a new experiment buried deep beneath Lead, South Dakota: to capture dark matter as it interacts with other particles. This experiment is called LUX-ZEPLIN, or LZ for short. This is a 10-ton vat of pure liquid xenon, equipped with a detector to capture the very faint energy flashes that will come from dark matter particles colliding with xenon atoms. The researchers announced Thursday that it was online and ready to search for new particles. “Dark matter remains one of the greatest mysteries of particle physics today,” said Hugh Lippincott, spokesman for the LZ team of 250 scientists, in a live announcement.