Dark matter detector goes underground

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http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/dark-matter-detector-goes-underground/story-e6frfkui-1226426326707

THE world's most sensitive dark matter detector has settled into a new home in an old US gold mine.

And when it starts collecting data later this year, scientists say it could lead to another breakthrough in studies of the universe, on the scale of the recent celebration over the so-called "God particle".

"Dark matter presents a much bigger problem to detect," said Tom Shutt, a physics professor with Case Western Reserve University who's working on the Large Underground Xenon detector, known as LUX.

"If we find it, it's going to be a much bigger shift in our understanding of physics."

Scientists earlier this month announced a breakthrough in the existence of the Higgs boson, a subatomic particle that scientists believe gives other particles mass. It is sometimes called the "God particle" because its existence is key to understanding the early evolution of the universe.

Dark matter, meanwhile, is elusive matter that scientists believe makes up about 25 per cent of the universe. They know it's there by its gravitational pull, but unlike regular matter and antimatter, it's so far undetectable.

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1. This is the most sensitive dark matter detector in the world!! Right in SD!! :-)