Nov. 26 (UPI) -- More than 100 years after its existence was predicted, scientists report that they have, for the first time, seen dark matter.
Scientists have been able to indirectly observe dark matter based on its effects on observable matter but now, with the help of a space-based NASA telescope, they have detected dark matter itself, according to a study published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.
Dark matter was predicted by Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky as a type of invisible scaffolding that holds galaxies together as they move through space faster than their mass should be capable of allowing.
Using a decade and a half of data collected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, researchers report that they have detected the invisible scaffolding based on gamma rays that result from the collision and resulting annihilation of two dark matter particles.
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