In 1988, the National Science Foundation awarded the University of California, Berkeley, six million dollars over five years to establish the Center for Particle Astrophysics. The center would take multiple approaches to the mystery of dark matter. One was to try to detect particles of dark matter in the laboratory. Another looked for signs of dark matter in the cosmic microwave background. A third approach explored dark matter through theory. And another group would try to determine how much matter was out there, dark or otherwise, by using supernovae as standard candles.
