Scientists Were Hunting for Dark Matter...and Then This Happened

These scientists discovered the longest half-life ever recorded.

In April 2019, the Xenon1T detector in Italy aimed to detect dark matter with liquid xenon. While they failed to succeed, the team did discover the longest half-life ever recorded, which is extraordinarily rare.

The experiment consisted of an enormous tank filled mostly with xenon cooled to -96 degrees Celsius, and while the vat contained 3.2 metric tons of liquid xenon, the experiment had a targeted exposure rate of 1 metric ton per year, hence the 1T in the name.

The scientists were trying to expose the xenon to dark matter, or most specifically Weekly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), which are thought to be heavy, slow-moving particles. But the particles are just hypothetical.

The experimental hope was that while watching a gigantic tank of xenon very closely, a WIMP would collide with an atom and transfer some of that energy to the atom’s nucleus. In turn, that would excite other xenon atoms, ultimately leading to the release of faint signals of ultraviolet light and trace amounts of electrical charge which could be detected by sensors at the top and bottom of the tank.

And after collecting data from 2016 to December 2018, scientists didn’t detect any dark matter, not a single hint of a WIMP. Instead, they discovered something else pretty monumental: a record-setting half-life.

Learn more about the Xenon1T detector, the experiment and the unexpected result in this episode of Elements.

#DarkMatter #Energy #Experiment #Seeker #Science #Elements

Read More:
Dark matter detector reveals material with longest half-life ever – 18 sextillion years
"According to this study, the half-life of xenon 124 is a barely-comprehensible 18 sextillion years, or an 18 followed by 21 zeroes. For comparison's sake, that's more than a trillion times longer than the age of the universe itself, which is a mere 13.8 billion years young."

Dark Matter
"Dark matter is stuff in space that has gravity, but it is unlike anything scientists have ever seen before. Together, dark matter and dark energy make up 95% of the universe. That only leaves a small 5% for all the matter and energy we know and understand."

Dark Matter Search Results from a One Ton-Year Exposure of XENON1T
"XENON1T utilizes a liquid xenon time projection chamber with a fiducial mass of (1.30±0.01) ton, resulting in a 1.0 ton yr exposure."

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[RoguishlyHandsome]

_"A Whiff of a Wimp"_
A fragrance to wear proudly

[evaristegalois]

Is this video about dark matter?
Seeker: "Well yes, but actually no..."

[Kar_Animation]

The mission is to find data about dark matter,
But they discover the real half-life of a tellurium isotope .
Moral of the story : discoveries happen by accident, most of the time.

[markoates]

I’m just glad someone finally released a new Half Life

[ZeroOskul]

0:49 the "S" at the end of "WIMPs" is not part of the acronym but pluralizes it and should be lower-case.

[ReverendFather_UncleRuckus]

Nobody: "I'm not a robot."
Me: That's exactly what a robot would say.

[RazorbackPT]

Wow you wont believe what happened next. Doctors hate this one weird trick!

[aquasama]

I thought we finally found a 10/10 recommended toothpaste, but was disappointed.

[aaronmicalowe]

Even if they never find dark matter, it still informs science as to what methods have been tested and, either don't work or were not sensitive enough. It all feeds the search and helps to eliminate dead ends.

[SpittinSquirell]

Thanks for using dark matter in the title to get us excited, then talk about xenon....

[godless]

18, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 years huh? That's almost as long as it takes my girlfriend to get ready.

[steviebob]

Yeah I'm not buying it, you're definitely a robot. You can't trick me.

[ZerCre]

Now here's a question I have of some relevance to this; This particular isotope of Xenon has a half life after which it decays to form another element. Other isotopes of Xenon are thought to be stable, if I'm right, but here's my question: is there such a thing as a stable element that will not decay into something else, or are all elements, regardless of isotopes, in fact unstable and will decay into something less after sufficient time, even, say, Gold 197, which is probably one of the (if not the, as far as I know) most stable atomic isotopes in existence?

[vtrmusic]

“Think in terms of everything is made of particles bumping into each other... 😂” Nikola Tesla

[Sal]

I do not like the titles this channel use for thier videos.

[nocultist]

Youtube kept messing with algorithm... and than clickbait happend.

[zorinx]

*Mark Zuckerberg should wear your T-shirt*

[Sinnbad]

In one day this video has been viewed 300, 000 times. Who would’ve thought we would have so much of the population that cares and shows interest in this “boring” science stuff. This makes me happy. There’s hope yet

[darthmortem]

Wow I used to think this guy was a robot ....but now I know he's not.

[mohitha]

When a science channel starts to put a clickable title