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Dark matter is the name given to an invisible substance believed to make up about 85 percent of all matter in the universe. Scientists cannot see it, but they know it is there because its gravity helps hold galaxies together. Despite nearly a century of searching, NASA says scientists have never directly detected what dark matter is made of. LUX-ZEPLIN, or LZ, a detector located almost a mile underground in South Dakota, recorded the unusual event. The experiment contains a large tank of liquid xenon and is designed to spot the rare moment when a possible dark matter particle hits an ordinary atom. Researchers found the event while examining 220 days of data collected between March 2023 and April 2024. It appeared in a part of the detector where scientists expected dark matter to show up and where interference from known sources was very low, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The team calculated that there is about a 1-in-200 chance that known background activity caused the event. While that makes it unusual, the evidence is not yet strong enough to declare a discovery. Researchers presented the findings at a scientific conference in Japan on Tuesday. The paper is expected to be released online and submitted to Physical Review Letters. Researchers stressed that they recorded only one unexplained event. It could be the first hint of a dark matter particle, but it could also have come from a rare source that scientists have not yet identified. More data will be needed to tell the difference. “We are not claiming to have seen dark matter,” LZ spokesperson Rick Gaitskell said in a Berkeley Lab statement. “But we have seen something interesting.” What Is Dark Matter? Scientists have long suspected that much of the universe is missing from view. In 1933, astronomer Fritz Zwicky noticed that galaxies in the Coma Cluster were moving too quickly to be held together by the matter he could see. He suggested that an invisible form of matter was providing the extra gravity, calling it “dark matter,” according to NASA. The idea gained wider acceptance in the 1970s through the work of American astronomer Vera Rubin. She found that stars near the edges of galaxies were moving so quickly that they should have flown off into space. Something unseen appeared to be holding them in place. Dark matter is important because its gravity helped shape the universe. Scientists believe it acted like a framework around which galaxies and larger groups of galaxies formed. Understanding it could therefore help explain how the universe developed into what we see today. Although scientists have gathered strong evidence for dark matter through its gravity, they still do not know what it is made of. It does not give off or reflect light and appears to interact very little with ordinary matter, making it extremely difficult to detect. One possible answer is a type of particle called a weakly interacting massive particle, or WIMP. As the name suggests, WIMPs would rarely interact with normal matter. They could pass through Earth—and through people—without leaving any noticeable trace. Experiments such as LZ are designed to catch the rare exception. If a WIMP strikes an atom inside the detector, the collision should cause the atom to move and produce flashes of light. Scientists can study those flashes for signs that an invisible particle caused them, Berkeley Lab explains. Finding a WIMP would do more than confirm that dark matter particles exist. It could reveal their mass and how they interact with ordinary matter, helping to fill a major gap in scientists’ understanding of the universe. That is why the unexplained LZ event has attracted attention. Its features resemble the kind of collision the detector was built to find, but one event is not enough to establish its cause. Scientists will need to find similar events before they can determine whether LZ detected dark matter or an unknown source of interference. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Robinson and Sam Wilson. News Dark matter Space Study Research NASA South Dakota Dark matter Space Study Research NASA South Dakota News Article Scientists Detect Strongest Sign Yet of Dark Matter in Major Breakthrough Published Sep 02, 2026 at 11:52 AM EDT By Jordan King Reporter 0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Scientists may have found the strongest sign yet of dark matter after a detector deep underground recorded an event that researchers cannot explain. Dark matter is the name given to an invisible substance believed to make up about 85 percent of all matter in the universe. Scientists cannot see it, but they know it is there because its gravity helps hold galaxies together. Despite nearly a century of searching, NASA says scientists have never directly detected what dark matter is made of. LUX-ZEPLIN, or LZ, a detector located almost a mile underground in South Dakota, recorded the unusual event. The experiment contains a large tank of liquid xenon and is designed to spot the rare moment when a possible dark matter particle hits an ordinary atom. Read More on News Researchers found the event while examining 220 days of data collected between March 2023 and April 2024. It appeared in a part of the detector where scientists expected dark matter to show up and where interference from known sources was very low, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The team calculated that there is about a 1-in-200 chance that known background activity caused the event. While that makes it unusual, the evidence is not yet strong enough to declare a discovery. Researchers presented the findings at a scientific conference in Japan on Tuesday. The paper is expected to be released online and submitted to Physical Review Letters . Researchers stressed that they recorded only one unexplained event. It could be the first hint of a dark matter particle, but it could also have come from a rare source that scientists have not yet identified. More data will be needed to tell the difference. “We are not claiming to have seen dark matter,” LZ spokesperson Rick Gaitskell said in a Berkeley Lab statement. “But we have seen something interesting.” ... What Is Dark Matter? Scientists have long suspected that much of the universe is missing from view. In 1933, astronomer Fritz Zwicky noticed that galaxies in the Coma Cluster were moving too quickly to be held together by the matter he could see. He suggested that an invisible form of matter was providing the extra gravity, calling it “dark matter,” according to NASA. The idea gained wider acceptance in the 1970s through the work of American astronomer Vera Rubin. She found that stars near the edges of galaxies were moving so quickly that they should have flown off into space. Something unseen appeared to be holding them in place. Dark matter is important because its gravity helped shape the universe. Scientists believe it acted like a framework around which galaxies and larger groups of galaxies formed. Understanding it could therefore help explain how the universe developed into what we see today. Although scientists have gathered strong evidence for dark matter through its gravity, they still do not know what it is made of. It does not give off or reflect light and appears to interact very little with ordinary matter, making it extremely difficult to detect. Related Story Who Was Nancy Grace Roman? Namesake of New NASA Telescope One possible answer is a type of particle called a weakly interacting massive particle, or WIMP. As the name suggests, WIMPs would rarely interact with normal matter. They could pass through Earth—and through people—without leaving any noticeable trace. Experiments such as LZ are designed to catch the rare exception. If a WIMP strikes an atom inside the detector, the collision should cause the atom to move and produce flashes of light. Scientists can study those flashes for signs that an invisible particle caused them, Berkeley Lab explains. Finding a WIMP would do more than confirm that dark matter particles exist. It could reveal their mass and how they interact with ordinary matter, helping to fill a major gap in scientists’ understanding of the universe. That is why the unexplained LZ event has attracted attention. Its features resemble the kind of collision the detector was built to find, but one event is not enough to establish its cause. Scientists will need to find similar events before they can determine whether LZ detected dark matter or an unknown source of interference. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Robinson and Sam Wilson . 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