Science has answered a whole bunch of questions over the last couple of decades – it’s honestly hard to keep up.

If there’s one area of research that’s still largely without real answers, though, it’s dark matter.

Dark matter is believed to make up around 27% of the universe, but scientists have never actually observed it directly.

This set of European authors are suggesting that the radio waves detected in the Earth’s ionosphere – where UV and X-ray radiation from the Sun ionizes atoms to create plasma – could be the result of those particles interacting with dark matter.

Their paper, which suggests this could be a good place to try to finally lay eyes on dark matter, has not yet been published.

The theory could take decades to prove, but it would be worth it to solve one of the biggest unanswered questions about the universe.

Other theories include thinking dark matter could be extremely massive particles called “Weakly Interacting Massive Particles” or extremely light ones called “axions.”

Axions are so light that they could (hypothetically) act more like “large waves that slosh around the cosmos.”

This would make them very difficult to observe, which is why scientists have been more focused on instead observing interactions they might be having with matter around them.

The team from the University of Geneva and CERN believe that searching the ionosphere could finally give us some answers as far as the identity of dark matter.

They suggest “studying waves of hypothetical dark matter” as they interact with ionized particles could be the trick that works, though it remains, in their words, a “long shot.”

“An electrically-small dipole antenna targeting the generated radio waves can be orders of magnitude more sensitive to dark photon and axion-like particle dark matter in the relevant mass range.”

It helps that the ionosphere is relatively close to use, too.

“This form of dark matter is highly theoretical, and it would take years, if not decades, to perfect the observation technique to search for these radio waves. But if it works, it would be a gold mine, allowing us to study one of the most mysterious elements in the universe right on our cosmic doorstep.”

Since all we have is theories, let’s add this one to the pile.

I don’t see why not.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about why we should be worried about the leak in the bottom of the ocean.