What can the gamma ray light emitted by the Milky Way Galaxy teach scientists about the existence of dark matter? This is what a recent study published in Physical Review Letters hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated a mysterious glow at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy that has remained decades-old a mystery to scientists. However, this mysterious glow could help scientists better understand dark matter, which remains of the most mysterious substances in the universe.
For the study, the researchers used a series of computer models to simulate what activity is occurring at the center of the Milky Way, which is home to a large amount of gamma ray energy and the mysterious aforementioned glow, whose origin has eluded scientists for decades. This study comes as NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope previously observed extra gamma ray energy with scientists hypothesizing could be evidence for the existence of dark matter.
Based on those findings, researchers have hypothesized that extra gamma ray energy within the center of the Milky Way could either come from neutron stars or dark matter. In the end, the computer simulations found that both hypotheses could be correct, that the extra gamma ray energy could come from pulsars or dark matter. However, the researchers are quick to note that further research is needed to confirm these findings.
“Dark matter dominates the universe and holds galaxies together,” said Dr. Joseph Silk, who is a professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University and a co-author on the study. “It’s extremely consequential and we’re desperately thinking all the time of ideas as to how we could detect it. Gamma rays, and specifically the excess light we’re observing at the center of our galaxy, could be our first clue.”
How will the Milky Way’s glow help scientists better understand dark matter in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Physical Review Letters, EurekAlert!
Featured Image: Computer-enahnced image of a Hubble Space Telescope image that could reveal a dark matter "ring". (Credit: NASA, ESA, M. J. Jee and H. Ford et al. (Johns Hopkins Univ.))
