However, he admits that there is always the chance that these experiments may find nothing at all - and dark matter may not be in the form of WIMPs.
BBC: Dark Matter: Experiment to shed light on dark particles
Both theory and previous observations suggest there is more dark energy than dark matter, and more dark matter than normal matter.
But for the other half it will be moving with this tide and less dark matter will hit.
BBC: Dark Matter: Experiment to shed light on dark particles
Meanwhile, in space, scientists are looking for the signatures of dark matter and dark energy.
In the aftermath of these collisions, physicists hope to find footprints that prove the existence of a handful of things their calculations say should exist, like black holes, dark matter and dark energy.
In the new image, the full-scale distribution of vast clumps of dark matter can be seen around galaxy clusters, connected by wispy filaments of dark matter and trailing off to enormous voids where no matter exists.
That's because as the Earth moves around the Sun, it is moving into a stationary field of dark matter - and for half the year it will be moving against the tide of dark matter - just like driving into the rain.
BBC: Dark Matter: Experiment to shed light on dark particles
Dark and visible matter usually coincide.
ECONOMIST: Cosmology: I spy with my little gravitational lens | The
They think the universe is stuffed with invisible dark matter composed of particles very different from the ones that make up visible matter, and it is the gravity of this dark matter that holds galaxies together.
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer was designed to search for dark matter by collecting high energy radiation known as cosmic rays, and then sort through it looking for a certain class of particle believed to be created after two bits of dark matter collide in space and destroy each other.
FORBES: Experiment May Have Found Dark Matter, The Key To A Cosmic Mystery
Their overlap confirms the hypothesis that dark matter is the skeleton upon which visible matter is supported, and also lends weight to a second idea that galaxies form where dark matter accumulates at high densities, pulling visible matter with it.
ECONOMIST: Cosmology: I spy with my little gravitational lens | The
Two further refinements were necessary: to work out the third dimension distance from Earth and to subtract the effect of visible matter in order to be left with the distribution of dark matter pure and simple.
ECONOMIST: Cosmology: I spy with my little gravitational lens | The
Indeed, one principal purpose of the Bolshoi simulation is to compute and model the evolution of dark matter halos thereby rendering the invisible visible for astronomers to study, and to predict structures that astronomers could then seek to observe.
Among other things, this telescope is also looking for evidence of dark matter and dark energy.
Meanwhiel, in space, scientists are looking for the signatures of dark matter and dark energy.
The other 96% consists of dark matter and dark energy, two mysterious substances about which very little is known.
WSJ: The Weekend Interview with Michio Kaku: Captain Michio and the World of Tomorrow
The mission also hopes to give scientists a bigger clue as to the role dark matter and energy play in the universe.
The larger the amount of xenon, the greater the possibility of seeing an interaction between dark matter and the xenon, scientists say.
It seemed to break down into an excess of photons, such that it might potentially reveal something unexpected about dark matter and the structure of space-time.
Those of you hoping for direct and obvious evidence of dark matter may be a little disappointed, but let's be honest -- you were being overly optimistic.
The "concordance" model of the Universe proposes that over 70% is made up of dark energy, with around 25% composed of dark matter and only 5% of normal matter.
He predicted the next few years would be remembered as the "decade of the Wimp", and looked forward to dark matter's properties being exposed via a number of investigation strands that included Wimp production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
One possible explanation for these positrons is the mutual annihilation of the matter and antimatter forms of a type of dark matter called weakly interacting massive particles, also known as WIMPs.
ECONOMIST: The search for dark matter: Ethereal yet weighty | The
About 25% of the universe is believed to be dark matter, about 70% is the little-understood dark energy, and about 5% is ordinary matter made of atoms.
Dr Massey and his colleagues were able to map the matter (both dark and visible) in the bit of the firmament covered by the Cosmic Evolution Survey by looking for characteristic distortions in the shape of distant galaxies that only Hubble, which is beyond the image-blurring effects of the atmosphere, can see.
ECONOMIST: Cosmology: I spy with my little gravitational lens | The
"There's a huge synergy there, in astronomers trying to find the influence of dark matter by mapping stars and galaxies and large structures in the universe, and particle physicists trying to discover the source of that influence of dark matter through subatomic particles here on Earth, " said Jason Kalirai, deputy project scientist for the telescope at the Space Telescope Science Institute.
These experiments are happening at the same time that the LHC is colliding particles, and may find evidence of dark matter that way.
This means that normal matter collapses more slowly than dark matter, and that when it does so it has a tendency to oscillate, generating a sound wave.
"Einstein's theory of general relativity tells us that mass bends space and time, so when light comes toward us through the Universe, if it passes some dark matter, its light gets bent and the image we see gets bent and distorted, " Dr Heymans told the meeting.
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