Clump of dark matter may loom near solar system

A balloon-borne instrument soaring high over Antarctica has found evidence of a possible large clump of mysterious so-called dark matter relatively close to our solar system, scientists said on Wednesday.

It detected an unexpected amount of very high energy cosmic ray electrons coming from an unknown source within about 3,000 light years of the solar system. A light-year is 10 trillion km, the distance light travels in a year.

One explanation is that the electrons may have been spawned as dark matter particles collided with one another, triggering their mutual annihilation, according to Louisiana State University physics professor John Wefel.