The lab is located a kilometre underground in the Stawell Gold Mine, in the Northern Grampians in Victoria and is being described as a new epicentre of dark matter research. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
A lab has been built in Victoria that will be used to help scientists shed some light on the secrets of dark matter.
The lab is a collaboration between the University of Melbourne, The Australian National University (ANU), Australian Nuclear Science and Technology (ANSTO), Swinburne University of Technology and the University of Adelaide.
The Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL) is the first dark matter laboratory in the Southern Hemisphere and it is hoped it will advance understanding of dark matter, the substance in our universe that does not absorb or emit light.
Dark matter is an invisible and unknown substance and scientists believed it makes up about 85 per cent of the mass of the universe.
The lab is located a kilometre underground in the Stawell Gold Mine, in the Northern Grampians in Victoria and is being described as a new epicentre of dark matter research.
“Dark Matter remains elusive, and there are only a handful of labs across the globe capable of making meaningful investigations,” said ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt.
“Australia has just put itself on the map when it comes to this exciting field of science.”
The challenge with dark matter is that it has remained elusive and undetected, there is still much that is unknown even though its effects have been observed.
The lead researcher on the project, Professor Elisabetta Barberio from the University of Melbourne said detecting it will provide answers that permanently change the way we see the universe.
“We know there is much more matter in the universe than we can see,” she said.
“With the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory, we have the tools and location to detect this dark matter.
“Proving the existence of dark matter will help us understand its nature and forever change how we see the universe.”
The tools she refers to is the experiment known as SABRE South which aims to detect dark matter in the deep underground ultra-low radiation environment of the lab.
“What excites me most about the lab is that I might be a part of a discovery that will change the understanding of the universe,” said ANU researcher Dr Zuzana Slavkovska.
“We believe that about 85 per cent of the mass of the universe consists of this mysterious substance called dark matter. We know almost nothing about it.”
“Look at all the inventions and technologies that we have created and discovered knowing only 15 per cent of the mass of the universe; now imagine how much potential there is knowing the rest.”
