US EditionScientists May Have Finally Seen Dark Matter After 100-Year Search
A 15-year Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope study finds a 20 GeV gamma-ray excess in the Milky Way halo matching weakly interacting massive particles annihilation predictions.
- On November 26, Tomonori Totani of the University of Tokyo published a paper in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics claiming a halo-like gamma-ray excess from 15 years of Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope data.
- Dark matter makes up about 27% of the universe, while ordinary matter is about 5%, and one leading candidate, weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, are predicted to produce gamma rays when they annihilate.
- After modeling known sources, the residual gamma-ray map shows a faint, spherical halo-like emission peaking at 20 gigaelectronvolts across approximately 100 degrees, matching WIMPs annihilation predictions for masses about 500 times a proton.
- Totani claimed, `This may be achieved once more data is accumulated, and if so, it would provide even stronger evidence that the gamma rays originate from dark matter.`
- Skeptics pointed out that some experts found no excess in Fermi data and urged searches with the Cherenkov Telescope Array and dwarf galaxies to confirm or refute the claim.
29 Articles
29 Articles
Physicists have long been hunting for the first direct evidence for the existence of this substance, which makes up 27 percent of the universe.
For decades, researchers have been searching for the postulated dark matter, which is supposed to make up the bulk of the cosmos. An astrophysicist from Tokyo is now detecting treacherous gamma radiation. Has he found out about the cosmic phantom?
A Japanese physicist claims that he could have proven so-called dark matter in measurement data from outer space. Thus, he solved an almost 100-year-old puzzle. However, colleagues are skeptical.
Was Dark Matter Just Detected for the First Time?
When Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky caught the Coma galaxy cluster moving faster than its mass should allow in 1933, he came up with a novel theory: There must be some hidden mass that escaped his detection. He termed this mysterious substance dunkle Materie or dark matter. Now, after almost 100 years, scientists may have directly observed dark matter for the first time. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . Dark mat…
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