Ideas, Inventions And Innovations Searching Betelgeuse for Axions and Dark Matter An MIT-led search for axions from nearby star Betelgeuse (pictured here) came up empty, significantly narrowing the search for hypothetical dark matter particle. Credits: Image: Collage by MIT News. Betelgeuse image courtesy of ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/E. O’Gorman/P. Kervella n impression on ordinary matter. As such, the ghost-like particle is a leading contender as a component of dark matter — a hypothetical, invisible type of matter that is thought to make up 85 percent of the mass in the universe. Axions have so far evaded detection. Physicists predict that if they do exist, they must be produced within extreme environments, such as the cores of stars at the precipice of a supernova. When these stars spew axions out into the universe, the particles, on encountering any surrounding magnetic fields, should briefly morph into photons and potentially reveal themselves.