A team of Harvard University physicists has proposed the possible existence of a type of dark matter not described by current physics models. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the team suggests it's possible that not all dark matter is cold and collision-less.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-05-physicists-kinds-dark.html#jCp

A team of Harvard University physicists has proposed the possible existence of a type of dark matter not described by current physics models. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the team suggests it's possible that not all dark matter is cold and collision-less.

In the visible universe, galaxies form into a disk shape—the Milky Way is a good example. All of its members align roughly along a single plane, this due to the forces of gravity and spin. Objects form into masses which, over time, spread out into a disk shape. Dark matter, on the other hand, appears to hover around galaxies like a halo, at least according to current models. It's seen as dark, cold and with so little energy that dark matter particles rarely if ever run into one another. The researchers in this new study suggest there may be other types of matter, however, that behaves more like visible matter. And, because of that, they suggest it could bunch up due to dark-matter-type gravity and form disks as well. These disks, which they describe as dark matter component double-disk dark matter, could represent as much as 5 percent of all existing dark matter.

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