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Thank you for registering Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in Jump to content Open full menu UK Edition US Edition Asia Edition Edición en Español Log in Log in News Premium Sport Voices Culture Lifestyle IndyBest Travel More Swipe for next article Space New computer simulations might show us where dark matter is hiding Mysterious material makes up most of the universe – but we don’t know where or what it is Andrew Griffin Friday 28 August 2026 15:01 BST Bookmark Comments Go to comments Bookmark popover Removed from bookmarks Close popover The Milky Way rises above a rocky mountain landscape in Antalya, Turkey, on August 13, 2026 ( AFP/Getty ) Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice New computers simulations might let scientist find where dark matter is hiding. Astronomers have long known that much our universe is made up of dark matter. But it remains entirely mysterious: it doesn’t interact with light or normal matter, and scientists don’t know where it might be lurking. Now, a new study has found a new way to try and figure out where it might have been hiding all this time. It also casts doubt on a leading theory for where we might discover it. “Dark matter makes up most of the mass in the universe and forms the scaffolding that galaxies grow on, but we still don't know what it is,” said Nora Shipp, from the University of Washington, a co-author on the new paper. “The Milky Way is one of the best laboratories we have for figuring that out, and stellar streams are one of the sharpest tools inside it.” The new research looks at stellar streams, rogue bands of stars that orbit around our Milky Way and other galaxies. They form when a group of stars crashes into a galaxy and gets caught up in its gravity. As they orbit around the galaxy, they are stretched out into a long, thin line of stars. That happens in most galaxies, but we can see those around our own Milky Way best. Many of the stellar streams that we can see have gaps in them. Astronomers believe that could happen as a result of small bits of dark matter – and so they could be a useful way of both understanding its effects and working out where to find it. In the new study, researchers simulated four galaxies like our own Milky Way, without any dark matter in. They then gave them about 15,000 stellar streams. They then watched the simulation play out – and found that there were these kinds of irregularities in almost all of the stellar streams, even without dark matter in them. It appeared to be the case that the structure of the galaxies themselves formed clumps in the stars. “In our simulations, the host galaxies alone caused the same kinds of irregularities that we observe in real stellar streams,” said lead author Arpit Arora, also from the University of Washington. “Now that we can predict what the host galaxy does on its own, we can start isolating the part that dark matter is responsible for.” While the new findings complicate the idea that stellar streams could be useful for finding dark matter, they provide new ways of looking for it, the researchers say. Future simulations could examine whether the clumps are different when there is dark matter actually present in those galaxies. “Sadly there's no magic wand to reveal the structure of dark matter,” said James Davenport, a research assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Washington. “Streams are complex systems, but they're still the most interesting way to study the dark matter close to home.” The work is reported in a new paper, ‘No Stream Left Unscathed: The imprint of a host galaxy’, published in the Astrophysical Journal . More about Dark matter astronomers stars Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments Most popular Popular videos Bulletin Read next Get in touch Contact us Our Products Subscribe Register Newsletters Donate Today’s Edition Install our app Archive Other publications International editions Independent en Español Independent Arabia Independent Turkish Independent Persian Independent Urdu The Standard Extras Puzzles All topics Free bets offers Latest deals Competitions and offers Independent Advertising Independent Ignite Syndication Working at The Independent Legal Code of conduct and complaints Contributors Cookie policy Donations Terms & Conditions Privacy policy User policies Modern Slavery Statement Thank you for registering Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in
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https://www.independent.co.uk/space/dark-matter-computer-simulations-galaxy-universe-b3041072.html
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