According to Q 13 Fox, scientists working at CERN - the European Organization for Nuclear Research - have made some progress with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), a large particle detector that has been riding aboard the International Space System since 2011. The AMS works to capture incoming cosmic rays from all over the galaxy, and recently measurements have been made that may originate from a new source.

This week, scientists published an analysis stating that AMS has detected exceedingly rare antimatter particles that can result from the breakdown of dark matter. Scientists believe that dark matter collides, splitting into pairs of electrons and positrons. As a result, the ability to examine positrons in greater detail could help in proving the existence of dark matter.

Positrons exist in relatively small numbers within the cosmic flux, and they have recently shown up in unusual amounts, and within a wider energy range than previously reported.

MIT News reports, "The new AMS results show unambiguously that a new source of positrons is active in the galaxy...we do not know if these positrons are coming from dark matter collisions, or from astrophysical sources such as pulsars. But measurements are underway that may discriminate between the two hypotheses."

CERN spokesman Arnaud Marsollier further commented, "AMS now unveiled data that no other experiment could ever record...it may come from other high-energy phenomena somewhere in our universe. But what? Pulsars? Supernovas?"   

Scientists acknowledge that the data released needs more study, but CERN says that at first glance, what they have seen so far looks "tantalizingly consistent with dark matter particles."

Paolo Zucon, an assistant professor of physics at MIT, stated that the new measurements are compatible with a dark matter particle with mass on the order of 1 teraelectronvolt (TeV) - about 1,000 times the mass of a proton.

Barry Barish, a professor emeritus of physics and high-energy physics at the California Institute of Technology, stated, "The new phenomena could be the evidence for the long-sought dark matter in the universe, or it could be due to some other equally exciting new science...in either case, the observation in itself is what is exciting; the scientific explanation will come with further experimentation."