For centuries, scientists have been hunting for an invisible glue that many believe holds our cosmos together. They have yet to observe this “dark matter,” but there are convincing signs it exists; the effects of the gravity it creates on nearby objects can be observed, for example. Learning more could be the key to solving the deepest mysteries of the universe.
And astronomers may have just unlocked a valuable clue that could help them, finally, observe the material. Most scientists theorize that dark matter comprises roughly
85 percentof the matter in the universe, but scientists believe that it’s made of stuff invisible to our telescopes. Another reason it’s hard to observe, some scientists believe, is that the mysterious substance could be what they call “collisionless,” meaning its particles interact with each other and other material indirectly.
However, a recent study published in Physical Review Letters is turning that assumption on its head. The study authors propose a new type of dark matter that they claim could be “self-interacting.” Unlike the traditional conception of dark matter, these particles would not only interact with each other, but also other material around them.
In everyday human terms, self-interacting dark matter behaves like a crowd of people who deliberately bump into each other instead of quietly avoiding others in the group, says Hai-Bo Yu, PhD, a physicist at the University of California, Riverside, who was one of the study’s authors. Rather than being made of collision-free and “cold” (or slow-moving) material, Yu’s research suggests that self-interacting dark matter could explain some kinds of structures we do see with telescopes.
However, one challenge in proving Yu’s theory is the fact that we don’t know what particles dark matter is made of, explains Yonatan Khan, PhD, a physicist at the University of Toronto, who did not participate in the study. “We don’t know how much it weighs, we don’t know whether it interacts with ordinary matter through forces of open gravity, and we also don’t know whether it interacts with itself,” he says.
Khan says Yu isn’t the first to propose this form of matter, but the reason it hasn’t been proven is because of observation issues: “Part of the challenge has been trying to find the right astrophysical observables that really focus on the signatures of self-interacting dark matter,” he says.
But if dark matter could interact with itself, Yu suggests that when the particles collide with each other, they would produce energy so immense that it could create dense, compact cores. However, our supercolliders, or machines that smash particles together at eye-watering speeds, aren’t yet powerful enough to find the particles associated with dark matter. But if we eventually do find these cores, Yu says they could help explain three important cosmic puzzles—pulling back the curtain on the inner workings of our universe.
A stream of stars located roughly 25 light-years away called GD-1 appears “scarred,” likely from the energy of an object that crashed through it long ago. In 2025, Yu was part of a team that wrote a paper in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, suggesting that this unknown object would have had to be extremely dense and made of a self-interacting form of dark matter. The team stated the scar left on the stream is too big to otherwise explain with the density of cold dark matter.
Yu adds that more observations of different stellar streams are needed to verify the work. And this isn’t some distant dream—studying these bands of stars could be possible in the next five years as more wide-field telescopes come online (such as the forthcoming Vera C. Rubin space telescope, located in northern Chile). “Then we might be able to exclude other explanations,” such as whether the gravitational well [or strength] of a galaxy changes over time and morphs stellar streams, Yu says.
Astronomers often take advantage of “magnifying glasses” in space. These aren’t the iconic detective tools you might’ve played with as a child; rather, they’re phenomena produced when one very dense object—such as a galaxy—magnifies the light of an object behind it (from the perspective of an astronomer on Earth), allowing them to see faint stars or galaxies otherwise too difficult to spot with a telescope alone.
And self-interacting dark matter may be key to learning more about these magnifying glasses. Yu suggests there is an ultra-dense dark matter object in one of these gravitational lens systems, known as JVAS B1938+666. However, he also acknowledges recent research that suggests that many factors could be contributing to the lens—including the gravity of a nearby elliptical (oval) galaxy.
The challenge in proving or disproving the theory is that the lens is quite far away and it’s difficult to figure out what is happening. “It’s also particularly hard in astronomy, because [the lens] occurs far away from us. You cannot reproduce it in a laboratory.”
There is a mysterious dwarf galaxy, smaller than our Milky Way, that American astronomer Harlow Shapley discovered in 1938. Known as the Fornax satellite galaxy—as it’s a “satellite” of our own—the galaxy hosts six star clusters, including the strange Fornax 6. The bizarre star cluster is dimmer than expected, and also has an irregular shape.
While some astronomers say the gravity from Fornax 6’s host galaxy might be tugging on the stars, Yu instead refines the discussion by suggesting that a clump of dark matter may be trapping stars into the cluster. But again, newer observatories will be needed to find similar clusters and to add validity to his research, he warns.
Yu and Khan agree that with more evidence coming in, self-interacting dark matter could be responsible for these three cosmic mysteries—and might reveal more about the nature of the universe, including particles here on Earth.
“I don’t think this study is the end of the story at all,” Khan says.
February / March 2026
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Featuring:
➡ Archaeologists Found a Skeleton Wearing a Silver Amulet. The Discovery Is Rewriting the History of Christianity.
➡ The Stray Dogs of Chernobyl Are Rapidly Mutating. Scientists Are Still Trying to Figure Out What It Means.
➡ New Evidence Could Upend What We Know About the Charles Lindbergh Baby Murder
➡ Police Found Mysterious Notes in a Dead Man's Pocket. They Turned Out to Be Codes That Not Even the FBI Can Break.
December 2025 / January 2026
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➡ An Angel of Death Preyed on Hospital Patients for Years.
➡ How America's Most Advanced Lab Brought the Killer to Justice.
➡ A 3,000-Ton Locomotive Was Loose, Unstoppable, and Filled With Toxic Cargo
➡ An Underwater Cave Promised Adventure and Glory. No One Expected It to Become a Tomb.
➡ Your Consciousness Can Predict the Future, Some Scientists Say
October / November 2025
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Featuring:
➡ Inside the Secret Island Where Death Is Optional
➡ A Legendary Ship Sank Without Warning. Fifty Years Later, Science Could Finally Solve the Mystery of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
➡ This Tech Rebel Threw Away $900 Million in a Municipal Dump. Can Robots Find His Lost Fortune?
➡ Sex Workers, LSD, and Mind Control: What Happened in the CIA's Lab of Nightmares at 225 Chestnut Street
August / September 2025
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➡ The Worst Air Disaster in American History Happened in Broad Daylight. Will More Mistakes Keep Happening?
➡ NASA Has a Plan to Save Earth from Planet-Destroying Asteroids. It Sounds Even Wilder than Science Fiction.
➡ A Naval Officer Says Underwater UFOs Are Legitimate Threats. The Evidence Is Hard to Ignore.
➡ When You Die, a Psychedelic Molecule Shapes Your Final Moments of Consciousness, a New Theory Reveals.
June/July 2025
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Featuring:
➡ This Undersea Explorer Found America's Greatest Sunken Treasure. Then Things Got Really Weird.
➡ Is Bigfoot Hiding in the Swamps of Florida? This Group Says It Has Proof.
➡ Scientists May Have Gotten the Global-Warming Timeline Seriously Wrong.
➡ A Third State Now Exists Between Life and Death, Some Scientists Now Believe
April/May 2025
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➡ Scientists Successfully Revive a Dead Brain, Redefining the Boundary Between Life and Death
➡ Fingerprints Keep Leading to Wrongful Convictions. Why Do Courts Still Rely on Them?
➡ For 80 Years, the North Sea Held a Deadly Killer. Now Scientists Are Racing to Defuse the Threat.
➡ They Built the Quietest Room in the World. Why Is Everyone So Afraid to Step Inside It?
February/March 2025
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➡ This Guy Says He Knows the Truth About UFOs. Should We Believe Him?
➡ Scientists Are Now One Step Away From Solving Nuclear Fusion—And Unlocking Unlimited Energy.
➡ A Million-Dollar Heist Rocked the Art World— Then Amateur Sleuths Cracked the Case
➡ A New Era of Missile Warfare Has Begun—and the U.S. Isn’t Ready
December/January 2025
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➡ A Clue Hidden in a 400-Year-Old Map Might Have Just Solved One of America's Greatest Mysteries
➡ Inside the Deranged Plot to Smuggle Cocaine With an Armed Soviet-Era Submarine
➡ This Brilliant Engineer Helped Build the B2 Bomber—Then He Sold America's Stealth Secrets to China
➡ Your Consciousness Can Connect With the Whole Universe
October/November 2024
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➡Untold Secrets Reveal How the Castle Bravo Test Became America’s Worst Nuclear Disaster
➡ This Body Was Found Preserved on a Block of Ice in a Colorado Shed. It Had Been There for 30 Years.
➡ It Was Supposed to Be America's Greatest Victory in Space—Then It Became NASA’s Worst Nightmare
➡ The Sidewinder Missile Ruled the Air—Then the Soviets Stole the Design
August/September 2024
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➡This Man Knows the Truth About Amelia Earhart. Why Doesn't Anyone Believe Him?
➡ The Army's Machine Gun Is No Match for Cheap Chinese Body Armor. So It's Making a New One.
➡ Russia Built a Stunning Rival to the Supersonic Concorde—and Then It Fell From the Sky
➡ A Navy Admiral Says Underwater UFOs Are a Threat—and the Pentagon is Withholding Secrets
June / July 2024
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Featuring:
➡4 Black Eggs Have Surfaced From the Depths of the Ocean— and the Mysterious Creatures Inside Are Baffling Science
➡ A $2 Million Treasure Appeared in a Kentucky Cornfield. No One Knows Where It Came From.
➡ A Million-Dollar Heist Rocked the Art World— Then Amateur Sleuths Cracked the Case
➡ A New Era of Missile Warfare Has Begun—and the U.S. Isn’t Ready
April May / 2024
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Featuring:
➡The Man Who Knows Too Much About Area 51
➡ How the FBI Took Down the Internet's Most Dangerous Website
➡ A Staggering New Clue Emerges in the D.B. Cooper Hijacking Mystery
➡ The Wildest Prison Break in U.S. History
➡ The Secret to a Perfect Lawn Lies in One of These 10 Electric Lawnmowers
February / March 2024
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Featuring:
➡The Incredible Mystery of NASA’s Missing Moondust
➡ Inside the Final Fiery Minutes of the East Palestine Train Wreck
➡ Scientists Believe They’ve Unlocked Consciousness—and It Connects to the Entire Universe
➡ Why This Unstoppable Stealth Bomber Will Rule the Skies
➡ America Is Developing a New Nuclear Bomb—But Can’t Test Whether It Works
➡ The 8 Best, Expert-Recommended Solar-Powered Generators
Special Issue: Nukes
➡ How Deadly Nuclear Waste Is Menacing This St. Louis Neighborhood
➡ The Terrifying History of Russia's Nuclear Submarine Graveyard
➡ Strange Mutations in Stray Dogs Near Chernobyl Suggest They Are Rapidly Evolving
➡ America Dumped 56 Million Gallons of Radioactive Material Along the Columbia River—Then It Started to Leak
December 2023 / January 2024
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➡ A New Clue In Amelia Earhart's Disappearance Emerges From the Ocean
➡ How an Alleged Water Bandit Stole $25 Million in Water from Thirsty California Farms
➡ A Coal Mine Exploded and 300 Miners Died. What Went Wrong?
➡ China Just Built a Terrifying New Aircraft Carrier and May Soon Dominate the Seas
October / November 2023
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➡ How Rats Took Over Our Cities—And Why We Can't Stop Them
➡ This Language Is on the Verge of Extinction. Can It Be Saved?
➡ America's Deadliest Warplane Returns in a New Doomsday Role
➡ This Amateur Diving Group Kept Solving Cold Cases. Then Its Own Skeletons Surfaced.
➡ The Scientific Breakthrough That Could Put an End to Gray Hair.
August/September 2023
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Featuring:
➡ Immortality Is in Reach. But It’s Not What We Imagined.
➡ Your Next iPhone (and Nuclear Subs) Will Be Powered By Space Metal
➡Scientists Now Think We Can Build a Warp Drive
➡ China and Russia Have Cracked the Stealth Code. Can the U.S. Regain Air Dominance?
June/July 2023
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➡ The CIA’s Secret Plan to Build a Laser Beam Powered by the Human Mind
➡ The 747 Ruled the Skies—Then One Slammed Into a Mountain
➡The Race to Contain AI Before Singularity
➡ These Florida Homes Aren’t Just Hurricane-Proof—They’re Blueprints for the Future
April/May 2023
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➡ AI Is on the Cusp of Taking Control—This Is How It May All Go Wrong
➡ There’s No Weapon Russia Fears More Than the HIMARS Rocket Launcher
➡The Nuclear-Submarine Arms Race Is Getting Intense, and the U.S. Just Took a Massive Leap Forward
➡ Iran Is Becoming a Drone Superpower—By Stealing American Technology
February/March 2023
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Featuring:
➡ The Greatest Treasure Hunt in American History Ended—and Then Things Got Weird
➡ These Are the High-Powered Weapons Ukraine Needs to Send Russia Running
➡ The Secret War to Take Out Iran’s Fleet of F-14 Jets
➡ Russia Is Trying to Intimidate the U.S. with Hypersonic Missiles and Big, Scary Nukes—And It's More Than a Threat
December 2022/January 2023
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Featuring:
➡ Is Death Real?
➡ China and Russia Are Dominating the Hypersonic Arms Race—And It’s Not Even Close
➡ When the South Fork Dam Broke, a Pennsylvania City Washed Away. Which Town Is Next?
➡ The Navy’s New $13 Billion Aircraft Carrier Is Already Obsolete. This Weapon Can Save It.
October/November 2022
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Featuring:
➡ Can America's M1 Abrams Still Compete With China's and Russia's Latest Battle Tanks?
➡ Inside the Final Minutes of the Concorde Disaster—and How It Doomed Supersonic Travel for Decades
➡ How the Massive Cargo Ship Felicity Ace Sank, Taking $400 Million Worth of Exotic Supercars With It
➡ I Turned My Old Gas-Guzzler Into a Zippy EV for $15,000
August/September 2022
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Featuring:
➡ Cosmic Secrets of the 17 Most Powerful Mega-Telescopes on Earth—and Beyond
➡ Can the Air Force's Secret, Hypersonic Jet Reclaim the Skies From Russia and China?
➡ For 50 Years, the Zodiac Killer's 340 Cipher Stumped the FBI—Then Three Amateurs Cracked the Code
➡ America's Most Fearsome Howitzer Has Entered the War in Ukraine
June/July 2022
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Featuring:
➡ Every Single Drone Fighting in the Skies Over Ukraine
➡ How to Buy a New Car in 2022 Without Getting Fleeced
➡ This Megastructure Could Keep Us Alive Forever
➡ The Race to Revolutionize EV Batteries
Elizabeth Howell (Ph.D., she/her) is one of a few space journalists in Canada. She has written five books, and was Space.com's former staff reporter in spaceflight. As a freelancer, she has written or edited articles about astronomy and space exploration for outlets such as Payload Space, Air&Space Magazine, Sky & Telescope and Salon. Elizabeth holds university degrees in journalism, science and history and also teaches an astronomy course, with Indigenous content, at Canada's Algonquin College. Aside from watching several astronaut missions launching from Florida and Kazakhstan, Elizabeth once lived like an astronaut at the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station in Utah.
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