Astronomers Ponder Unusual Glow Coming From the Coronary heart of Our Galaxy

For many years, astronomers have been puzzled by a mysterious glow of gamma rays emanating from close to the middle of the Milky Way. Two theories have emerged: both the sunshine was the results of darkish matter particles colliding, or it’s coming from quickly spinning neutron stars — the extraordinarily dense stays of exploded stars — known as pulsars.

Now, a new paper printed within the journal Physical Review Letters won’t have a satisfying reply — it argues that each theories are equally probably — nevertheless it does increase the stakes: if the primary chance seems to be appropriate, it may very well be the first-ever concrete proof that darkish matter, the mysterious stuff that’s believed to make up greater than 26 % of the universe, really exists.

“Dark matter dominates the universe and holds galaxies together,” mentioned coauthor and Johns Hopkins astronomy professor Joseph Silk in a statement. “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,” he added.

While taking into account how the Milky Way fashioned, Silk and his worldwide colleagues created a darkish matter map to establish the place it needs to be positioned.

Scientists consider that billions of years in the past, smaller galaxy-like methods of darkish matter clumped collectively on the middle of what’s now the Milky Way, inflicting collisions between the clumps to extend.

By simulating these collisions, the researchers discovered that their darkish matter map overlapped with present gamma ray maps, produced with knowledge from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.

While it’s an intriguing match, scientists are nonetheless removed from concluding that the glow on the coronary heart of our galaxy is the results of darkish matter. It’s fairly potential that pulsars are the wrongdoer.

Fortunately, an upcoming gamma ray telescope, dubbed the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory, may clear issues up. The multinational challenge might be comprised of 60 telescopes throughout two areas, one on the Spanish island of La Palma and one within the Atacama Desert in Chile, to probe galactic sources of gamma rays.

With these higher-resolution pictures, researchers are hoping to hone in on the supply of the mysterious glow on the middle of our galaxy that has puzzled astronomers for many years.

“A clean signal would be a smoking gun, in my opinion,” Silk mentioned within the assertion.

For now, Silk and his colleagues wish to probe different neighboring dwarf galaxies for darkish matter and whether or not its distribution matches present gamma ray maps.

“It’s possible we will see the new data and confirm one theory over the other,” Silk concluded. “Or maybe we’ll find nothing, in which case it’ll be an even greater mystery to resolve.”

More on darkish matter: Astronomers Detect Mysterious Dark Object in Distant Galaxy