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Abstract: One of the major challenges in modern physics is to unravel the mystery that surrounds Dark Matter (DM) - the invisible mass in our Universe. The leading hypothesis in astroparticle physics is that DM is made of new, as yet undetected particles with mass approximately in the sub-GeV up to few TeV range and interactions at the weak scale, or slightly below. Direct detection experiments searching for nuclear recoils induced by the non-relativistic scattering of Milky Way DM particles in low-background detectors are expected to play a key role in testing this hypothesis. Assuming that the hypothesis is correct, I will explore the implications for particle physics and astronomy of a DM discovery at direct detection experiments, focusing on two complementary regions in the DM parameter space, one at low masses (sub-GeV) and the second one at larger masses (around 50 GeV). In the first case, I will show that a DM signal at direct detection experiments can be used to break the degeneracy between local DM density and DM-nucleon scattering cross section, contrary to standard expectations. This is due to interactions of DM particles travelling inside the Earth which can perturb the DM velocity distribution probed at direct detection experiments in a DM-nucleon scattering cross section dependent manner. In the second case, I will illustrate under what circumstances the discovery of DM particles at direct detection experiments can be compatible with DM being a thermal relic of the early Universe. I will conclude exploring the possibility of extracting the DM particle spin from the discovery of a DM signal at direct detection experiments.