Invisible dark matter is supposed to make up over 80 per cent of the universe's mass but a new survey of nearby stars and galaxies suggests our patch of the cosmos could be totally free of the stuff. "The claim is that in this volume, there is no dark matter," says Christian Moni Bidin at the University of Concepción in Chile, who led the study.
The surprising finding contradicts otherwise successful predictions about the distribution of dark matter in the universe, leaving many puzzled about how else to explain the universe's history. It also fits with new observations by a fiery minority of physicists who dispute whether the mysterious matter, which has never been observed directly, is even
necessary.
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