Researchers at EPFL’s Laboratory of Particle Physics and Cosmology (LPPC) and Leiden University believe that they have caught their first look at dar matter in an X-Ray. If they are correct it could set science on a path to a much better understanding of the universe.

Since the invention of the telescope, scientists have studied distant galaxies and stars. Researchers can accurately predict the movement of these stars and galaxies but only by using math that doesn’t technically work.

In order to make things balance out, it is necessary to assume that there is something that can’t be seen, and that something has been labeled ‘dark matter’. In theory dark matter is a substance that does not interact with light but does have an impact on gravity and it may make up 80 percent of the universe.

In analyzing X-rays from the Perseus galaxy cluster and the Andromeda galaxy, researchers detected atypical photon emissions that could not be attributed to any known form of matter.

The signal’s distribution within the galaxy corresponds exactly to what we were expecting with dark matter, that is, concentrated and intense in the center of objects and weaker and diffuse on the edges,” explains Oleg Ruchayskiy of EPFL in a statement.

Once they’d found the signal and thought they knew what it was, the researchers looked closer to home.

“With the goal of verifying our findings, we then looked at data from our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and made the same observations,” said Alexey Boyarsky of EPFL and Leiden University.

If the research, which will be published next week in the journal Physical Review Letters, is confirmed it could mean a new day for physics and astronomy. Researchers will finally be able to observe all of the ‘stuff’ in the known universe, the majority of which is currently invisible.

“Confirmation of this discovery may lead to construction of new telescopes specially designed for studying the signals from dark matter particles. We will know where to look in order to trace dark structures in space and will be able to reconstruct how the Universe has formed,” said Boyarsky.