Physicists working in the Homestake Gold Mine in Lead, S.D. have so far come up empty in their search for dark matter.
The experiment has been running for 110 days and so far has come up with nothing, yet the scientists working on the project are not deterred, but rather happy, The New York Times reports. The project is called LUX after the Large Underground Xenon.
The team, comprised of physicists from all over the world, have been using the biggest and most sensitive dark matter detector, but have not found anything. Yet, they are not despairing as they feel that it shows the detector is working.
“In 25 years of searching, this is the cleanest signal I’ve ever seen,” Richard Gaitskell, a physics professor at Brown University, commented.
The experiment will continue in 2014 as they wait for their machine to find evidence of dark matter, according to BBC News. Dark matter is believed make up 27 percent of the universe, but so far none has ever been detected. The LUX project has eliminated previous experiments’ findings of dark matter.
“If the dark matter is out there and if it interacts the way we think it does, we should really start seeing it now,” Chamkaur Ghag, a professor from the University of College London, said. The project would “go back to the drawing board” though, if no direct evidence of black matter is detected.