LMR-074 · Dark Universe
Axion
A tiny particle that might solve dark matter and another mystery at once.
§ A first look
§ Depths
Six ways into the same idea — from bedtime story to chalkboard. No order required.
L1 · Crayon
Told like a bedtime story.
For a curious 10-year-old. No jargon. Just a picture in your head.
Scientists are pretty sure most of the universe is made of some invisible stuff we have never directly caught. They have several guesses for what it could be. One guess is a kind of particle called an axion: so tiny, so shy, it would barely bump into anything at all, but there'd be so many of them everywhere that all together they'd add up to a huge amount of weight. Nobody has caught one yet, but several experiments around the world are listening very carefully, like extremely patient cosmic fishermen. The fish, if any, are very small.
§ Strange but true
- 01A hypothetical particle so light it might fill the universe like an invisible fog and BE dark matter.
- 02Named after a brand of detergent — physicists thought it cleaned up a problem in the strong nuclear force.
- 03They might convert into photons in a strong magnetic field. Experiments are listening for the ping.
§ From the field journal
Axion
"A tiny particle that might solve dark matter and another mystery at once."
— observed, sketched, not yet fully understood.
§ Nearby