FROM THE EDITOR

Forgive us if we indulge in a little escapism this month. After a soggy, concrete-grey January cooped up inside, we decided to go with something otherworldly for this issue: ghost stars. If you’ve subscribed to us for a while, you’ll know that scientists are on the hunt for dark matter, an elusive but all-pervasive material that seems to hold our Universe together. Though we can’t see it, interact with it, or – most crucially – detect it with our most sensitive instruments, we can see that something is holding galaxies together, keeping the stars inside from spinning further out into space. This might seem inconsequential, but our best calculations estimate that this dark material seems to outweigh normal matter by a factor of six to one.

It’s clear to see why scientists have become increasingly desperate to find a way to detect and measure dark matter, and why a series of strange new signals in a handful of experiments dotted around the globe has got researchers excited. To get to the bottom of this mystery and the incredible ideas underlying it, head to p70 where astronomy writer Colin Stuart reveals all. In the meantime, if you want to listen to interviews that explore the ideas covered in the magazine in greater depth, please do check out our podcast, which you can find at sciencefocus.com/podcast.

Enjoy the issue!