Mysterious phenomenon at the heart of the Milky Way could point to new dark matter suspect. 'We may have been overlooking its subtle chemical effects on the cosmos.'

An illustration of concentrated dark matter at the heart of a spiral galaxy .

Strange events seen at the very heart of the Milky Way could be smoking gun evidence of a new dark matter suspect. If that is the case, scientists may have been missing the subtle impact of dark matter, the universe's most mysterious "stuff," on cosmic chemistry.

This newly proposed dark matter candidate would not only be lighter than existing hypothetical suspects, but it would also be self-annihilating. This means that when two particles of dark matter meet, they destroy each other and create a negatively charged electron and its positively charged equivalent, a positron.