We use GPS when we are driving to a new restaurant, walking to an interview or trying to find the closest subway station, but GPS satellites are being considered for a new purpose: finding dark matter, according to Live Science.
Dark matter is thought to loiter around the universe and it is very good at keeping itself hidden. Physicists believe there is six times as much dark matter as there is visible matter, but they are still looking for proof of invisible dark matter, according to Live Science.
Scientists believe that without dark matter's gravitational pull, galaxies would come unglued.
Andrei Derevianko, a professor of physics at the University of Nevada, and Maxim Pospelov, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Victoria, B.C., say they believe dark matter isn't even made of particles, according to Live Science. The two professors think dark matter might be "a topological defect," - a tear in the space-time continuum, which supports the argument for using GPS to pin point dark matter.
Derevianko and Pospelov say that wandering dark matter could cause disturbances in GPS satellites or in atomic clocks, according to Live Science.
"The idea is, where the atomic clocks go out of synchronization, we would know that dark matter, the topological defect, has passed by," Derevianko said in a statement, according to Live Science. "In fact, we envision using the GPS constellation as the largest human-built dark-matter detector."
