Prototype developed to detect dark matter

Scientists have developed what they claim is a "scintillating bolometer" -- a device that may help in the detection of dark matter of the universe.

The bolometer has been tested at Canfranc Underground Laboratory in Huesca, Spain.

"One of the biggest challenges in physics today is to discover the true nature of dark matter which cant be directly observed -- even though it seems to make up one-quarter of the matter of the Universe.

"So we have to attempt to detect it using prototypes such as the one we have developed," Eduardo García Abancéns, a researcher from the UNIZAR's Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Astroparticles, said.

The "scintillating bolometer" is a 46-gram device that contains a crystal "scintillator", made up of bismuth, germinate and oxygen which acts as a dark matter detector.

"This detection technique is based on the simultaneous measurement of the light and heat produced by the interaction between the detector and the hypothetical WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles) which, according to various theoretical models, explain the existence of dark matter", explains García Abancéns.