Oct. 31 marks Halloween worldwide and is a celebration of all things ghostly and unseen.
Sudbury's SNOLAB is no exception as those involved in dark matter research are inviting everyone to take part in Dark Matter Day this Halloween season.
Dark Matter Day is an international initiative encouraging institutions to share the mystery of dark matter and to highlight the work being done to unravel it. The intent of Dark Matter Day is to inspire and inform people about the science of searching for dark matter.
Dark Matter Day was conceived by the Interactions Collaboration, an international group of particle physics communicators, to raise public awareness about the scientific pursuit of one of the universe’s most puzzling secrets. This year marks the first ever celebration of Dark Matter Day.
SNOLAB hosted a number of public events during the weeks leading up to Dark Matter Day, including a dark matter show at the Doran Planetarium, a dark matter pop-up at the Sudbury Market, a dark matter pumpkin search at Dynamic Earth and much more.
"We wanted to engage a lot of different segments of our community," said Blaire Flynn, education outreach coordinator, SNOLAB. "From families, parents and kids, to teachers and students, we also hosted an underground webcast for more than 600 students worldwide. We're really happy with the attendance we had at our events."
So what exactly is dark matter, and why is Dark Matter Day being held on Halloween?
Scientists haven’t yet directly observed it though they know it’s there because of its observed gravitational effects on ordinary matter, such as the rotation speed of galaxies and the movement of galaxies within clusters.
Dark matter seems to “hide” in plain sight and doesn’t play by the known rules of physics. Its like a costumed trick-or-treater who rings the doorbell and then dashes away, and scientists are trying to unmask it.
While there are many other mysteries of modern physics, scientists have pin pointed dark matter as the focal point for Oct. 31 as a conduit for opening up the conversation on the great mysteries of the universe.
SNOLAB is doing their part in keeping the conversation going, as their twitter @SNOLABscience has been taken over by a dark matter particle that has been poking fun at scientists during the course of the day.
Jokes like, "Have you heard this one? Dark matter walks into a bar. Physicists still can't find it," have peppered the account throughout the day.
"It's meant to be funny and sarcastic science-y jokes," said Flynn.
"It's tough to do a public event on Halloween because of all that's going on, but overall it's just been nice to talk science and really bring science forward as a topic of discussion."
