Dark matter at these huge, cosmological scales is only one part of the story, however, and Sukanya Chakrabarti of Florida Atlantic University presented work showing how the "dark matter halo" that surrounds individual galaxies can be characterised.

BBC: Dark matter hints in widest-yet view of dark mystery

For the past few years Dr Kuhlen and his colleagues have been working on a computer model of the halo of dark matter in which the Milky Way (the Earth's home galaxy) is thought to be embedded.

ECONOMIST: The search for dark matter: Ethereal yet weighty | The

Moreover, they also point out that there should be a second signal from annihilating dark matter, in the form of gamma rays coming from the Milky Way's halo.

ECONOMIST: Two new ways to detect the elusive stuff of the universe