Move over, Marvel – Chinese scientists just built a real-life 'cosmic spiderweb' to catch the universe’s most elusive substance! 🕸️ Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China have deployed the world’s first quantum sensor network stretching 300km between Hefei and Hangzhou, turning eastern China into a giant dark matter detector.
Published in Nature this week, their system uses five synchronized quantum sensors to hunt for axions – hypothetical particles that could explain why 85% of the universe’s mass is MIA. Imagine trying to hear a snowflake land in Times Square 🗽❄️; that’s how faint these signals are!
The team’s quantum amplifiers boost detection sensitivity 100x while filtering out Earth’s background noise. Though no axions were spotted in their two-month scan, they’ve narrowed the search parameters more than ever before. ‘This is like upgrading from dial-up to 6G in cosmic exploration,’ says co-author Peng Xinhua.
Next stop? Expanding this quantum net into space 🌠. Who knows – by 2027, we might finally solve the universe’s biggest hide-and-seek game!
