Computer simulations appear to suggest that dark matter creates extremely dense, hair-like filaments when it comes into contact with a planet—like Earth.
Dark matter is a mysterious and poorly-understood substance spread throughout the universe in a swirl-like collection of particle streams.
According to new research, when those streams come into contact with, and pass through, a planet—like Earth—they expand into extremely dense, hair-like filaments that seem to sprout from the planets themselves.
Such dark matter hairs would have both "roots" and "tips."
Estimated to be around one billion times more dense than an average particle in the dark matter stream, a root would begin