With the help of observations by two powerful space telescopes, it has been found that the mysterious stuff that makes up about 85% of the universe’s total matter is weirder than ever considered.

According to the researchers, they observed huge colliding galaxy clusters and with the help of this they have deduced how dark matter behaves at the time of these vast encounters. So far, the researchers have studied a handful of cluster smashups.

About 72 galactic cluster collisions have been focused by a new survey by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The survey has focused the collisions from all angles and at different times during their collisions.

As per the researchers, this has provided the unprecedented chance to see how dark matter interacts with itself over time. The results are going to be published on March 27 in the journal Science. The researchers also looked at galaxy clusters in order to know how dark matter may behave when galaxies collide with each other.

“We know how gas and stars react to these cosmic crashes and where they emerge from the wreckage. Comparing how dark matter behaves can help us to narrow down what it actually is”, said lead author David Harvey of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland.

According to experts, the presence of dark matter is identified only by its interactions with normal matter through gravity. When two galactic clusters collide, then the stars, gas and dark matter interact in different ways. According to Harvey, they have pushed the possibility of two ‘dark matter particles’ interacting below the probability of two actual protons interacting.