Leonardo DiCaprio criticizes Ottawa over B.C. salmon farms
Salmon farms have long been a point of contention between environmentalists and fish farmers in British Columbia, but a much bigger net is now being cast on the topic.
Dark energy, a mysterious force believed to be causing the universe to expand at an accelerated rate, may have been detected by scientists for the first time.
In a new study, published Wednesday in the journal Physical Review D, the authors suggest certain unexplained results from an experiment designed to detect dark matter could have been caused by dark energy.
"Despite both components being invisible, we know a lot more about dark matter, since its existence was suggested as early as the 1920s, while dark energy wasn’t discovered until 1998," Sunny Vagnozzi, of the University of Cambridge’s Kavli Institute for Cosmology, said in a story posted by the university. "Large-scale experiments like XENON1T have been designed to directly detect dark matter, by searching for signs of dark matter ‘hitting’ ordinary matter, but dark energy is even more elusive."
Nearly everything we can see and interact with, from bacteria to entire galaxies, is considered ordinary matter and energy, and makes up about five per cent of our universe, according to scientists. The rest is made up of dark matter (27 per cent), an invisible attractive force that holds the cosmos together, and dark energy (68 per cent), a repulsive force considered to be responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe.
The XENON research project is a collaboration of 160 scientists from around the world who have come together to perform a series of experiments aimed at detecting dark matter particles. These experiments involve the use of ultra-pure liquid xenon, a colourless, dense, odourless noble gas found in trace amounts in Earth’s atmosphere.
Experiments are performed at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory, the largest underground laboratory in the world, located approximately 1.4 kilometres beneath the Gran Sasso mountains in central Italy, about 120 kilometres northeast of Rome.
The XENON1T experiment was the latest phase of the project. About a year ago, it detected an unexpected signal, or excess, over the expected background profile.
"These sorts of excesses are often flukes, but once in a while they can also lead to fundamental discoveries," Luca Visinelli, researcher at Frascati National Laboratories in Italy, said. "We explored a model in which this signal could be attributable to dark energy, rather than the dark matter the experiment was originally devised to detect."
The researchers created a physical model that used a type of screening mechanism known as chameleon screening to show that dark energy particles produced in the Sun’s strong magnetic fields could explain the XENON1T signal.
"It was really surprising that this excess could in principle have been caused by dark energy rather than dark matter," Vagnozzi said. "When things click together like that, it’s really special."
A discovery such as this would mean that experiments designed to detect dark matter, including those performed during the XENON project, could also be used to detect dark energy. But further research is required to confirm these findings.
"We first need to know that this wasn’t simply a fluke," Visinelli said. "If XENON1T actually saw something, you’d expect to see a similar excess again in future experiments, but this time with a much stronger signal."
Salmon farms have long been a point of contention between environmentalists and fish farmers in British Columbia, but a much bigger net is now being cast on the topic.
Two men from Senegal froze to death were found in the snow of a wooded area close to the Canadian border, New York state police said.
The Vancouver Canucks weren’t the only ones who stumbled during Thursday night’s game against the Dallas Stars.
An historic downtown Toronto bar is closing its doors next week after nearly 200 years in business.
Austin Hunter Turner died in 2017, on a night that his mother has rewound and replayed again and again, trying to make sense of what happened.
Not getting enough sleep may cause you to feel five to 10 years older than you really are, according to two new studies.
Manhattan prosecutors suggested Friday that Donald Trump violated a gag order in his hush-money criminal case this week by assailing the judge's daughter and making a false claim about her on social media.
Niagara Region says it has declared a state of emergency 'out of an abundance of caution' as it prepares for an influx of visitors for next month’s total solar eclipse.
An Ontario man who built a garage on his property has been locked in a battle with his electricity provider for a year and half over a severed power line.
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
The spring allergy season has started early in many parts of Canada, with high levels of pollen in some cities already. Experts weigh in on which areas have it worse so far this season.
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
B.C. conservation officers recently seized a nine-foot-long Burmese python from a home in Chilliwack.
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
The Ontario government is introducing changes to auto-insurance, but some experts say the move is ill-advised.
Newfoundland’s unique version of the Pine Marten has grown out of its threatened designation.
A Toronto man is out $12,000 after falling victim to a deepfake cryptocurrency scam that appeared to involve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.