The Institute for Corpuscular Physics (Universitat de València-CSIC) joins the Dark Matter Day international celebration on Tuesday, October 31 (Halloween night), with the premiere of the documentary “Phantom of the Universe”. This consist of a tour through the history of this new type of matter which does not emit light and it means 25% of everything that exists in the Universe. There will be two passes, at 7pm and at 8pm, in the Hemisfèric of the City of Arts and Sciences.
The next October 31, Halloweeen night, research centers, planetariums and science museums from around the world come together to celebrate the first Dark Matter Day. It is an international initiative that highlights one of the most important fields of research in modern physics: the study of dark matter, a new type of matter that makes up 25% of the universe, but whose nature remains being a mystery. The Institute for Corpuscular Physics (IFIC, mixed center CSIC-Universitat de València) joins this celebration with the Spanish premiere of the documentary “Phantom of the Universe” in several planetariums in Spain, the Hemisfèric of Valencia among them, the Planetarium of Castellón and the Science Museum of Granada. There will be informative talks to present each event.
The documentary “Phantom of the Universe” propose a tour through the history of the dark matter sinde it was pose by the astronomer Fritz Zwicky in 1933 to explain the speed of rotation of galaxies in cumulus. According to his interpretation, there must be some kind of non-visible matter that accelerates that movement, so he called it “dark matter”. Thus, according to the calculations, this new type of matter that does not emit light would mean 85% of all the matter of the Universe.
Among the landmarks of the search for dark matter, the documentary recognise the work of the astronomer Vera Rubin, who obtained in 1970 the solid evidence of the existence of this new type of matter through his studies on the Andromeda galaxy. “Phantom of the Universe” follows the clue of this quest until now, where experiments from the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of CERN attempt to produce particles of this dark matter, while others such as LUX, in Sanford Underground Laboratory (Canada), used old gold mines hidden in the mountains to capture some dark matter particles.
“Phantom of the Universe” is an international production involving some of the world's leading laboratories in basic research in the Universe such as the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (USA) or CERN itself, whose Media Lab produced the spectacular animations that appear in the film. The production of these animations took place at the Institute for Corpuscular Physics of Valencia, Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa also in charge of producing the Spanish version of the film that release on 31 October. Sound effects are in charge of Skywalker Sound, also responsible for sound effects in Star Wars saga.
The projection in Valencia will take place in the Hemisfèric of the City of Arts and Sciences on Tuesday, October 31. The activity begins at 7pm with a talk by the responsible for spreading and dissemination of IFIC, Alberto Aparici, who will review what we know about dark matter and how many experiments around the world try to identify this elusive substance and shed light on its nature. The projection of the documentary will be after the talk. At 8pm will take place the second pass. Admission is free prior to registration on the CAC website or by calling 96 197 46 86.
In Castellón, the activity begins on Tuesday October 31 at 6pms with an informative talk by IFIC researcher Sergio Palomares (more information on the Planetarium website). For its part, the activity in the Science Park begins at 6.30pm with an introductory talk by the IFIC researcher Juan de Dios Zornoza (assembly hall, Pendulum building), after the documentary projection. Admission is free prior to regristration in Sciences Park website.
Dark Matter day is an initiative launched by particle physics laboratories around the world through the Interactions network. These events are celebrated in America (Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Chile and Brazil) and Europe (France, Italy, United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, Sweden) You can participate in the global conversion through social networks with the tag #darkmatterday.