Scientists are supposedly near the final phase of the search for dark matter, and so far they've failed to find anything.
The project, called LUX after the Large Underground Xenon, has been running for 110 days, according to BBC News.
The team is made up of physicists from all over the world, and they've been using the largest and most sensitive dark matter detector created. So far they've failed to detect anything however.
"They have not found dark matter," said Neal Weiner, a particle theorist at New York University, according to The New York Times. "There is nothing smacking you in the face to make you think there is something there." But as the sensitivity of the detector increases, he added, "If there is anything in there, it should become apparent."
Not finding any direct evidence of dark matter particles would mean that physicists would "have to go back to the drawing board," according to "Dr. Chamkaur Ghag, a collaborator on the LUX experiment from the University College of London.
Dark matter is believed to make up 27 percent of the Universe, but astronomers have just been able to conclude to its existence through the effects it has on visible matter, according to BBC News.
No one has ever detected dark matter before and if this experiment doesn't work, it may take awhile to detect it once and for all.
"If the dark matter is out there and if it interacts the way we think it does we should really start seeing it now," said Ghag.
The experiment is expected to continue in 2014.
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