A sketch (not to scale) showing axions (blue) streaming out from the Sun, converting in the Earth’s magnetic field (red) into X-rays (orange), which are then detected by the XMM-Newton observatory. Credit: University of Leicester.
New research from the University of Leicester provides the first potential indication of the direct detection of Dark Matter.
Space scientists at the University of Leicester have detected a curious signal in the X-ray sky – one that provides a tantalizing insight into the nature of mysterious Dark Matter.
The Leicester team has found what appears to be a signature of ‘axions’, predicted ‘Dark Matter’ particle candidates – something that has been a puzzle to science for years.
In a study published on Monday, October 20, 2014, in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the University of Leicester scientists describe their finding of a signal which has no conventional explanation.
As first author Professor George Fraser, who sadly died in March of this year, wrote: “The direct detection of dark matter has preoccupied Physics for over thirty years.” Dark Matter, a kind of invisible mass of unknown origin, cannot be seen directly with telescopes, but is instead inferred from its gravitational effects on ordinary matter and on light. Dark Matter is believed to make up 85% of the matter of the Universe.
“The X-ray background – the sky, after the bright X-ray sources are removed – appears to be unchanged whenever you look at it,” explained Dr. Andy Read, also from the University of Leicester Department of Physics and Astronomy and now leading the paper. “However, we have discovered a seasonal signal in this X-ray background, which has no conventional explanation, but is consistent with the discovery of axions.”
This result was found through an extensive study of almost the entire archive of data from the European Space Agency’s X-ray observatory, XMM-Newton, which will celebrate its 15th year in orbit this December. Previous searches for axions, notably at CERN, and with other spacecraft in Earth orbit, have so far proved unsuccessful.
As Professor Fraser explains in the paper: “It appears plausible that axions – Dark Matter particle candidates – are indeed produced in the core of the Sun and do indeed convert to X-rays in the magnetic field of the Earth.” It is predicted that the X-ray signal due to axions will be greatest when looking through the sunward side of the magnetic field because this is where the field is strongest.
Dr. Read concludes: “These exciting discoveries, in George’s final paper, could be truly ground-breaking, potentially opening a window to new physics, and could have huge implications, not only for our understanding of the true X-ray sky, but also for identifying the Dark Matter that dominates the mass content of the cosmos.”
President of the Royal Astronomical Society Professor Martin Barstow, who is Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Head of the College of Science & Engineering, and Professor of Astrophysics & Space Science at the University of Leicester said: “This is an amazing result. If confirmed, it will be the first direct detection and identification of the elusive dark matter particles and will have a fundamental impact on our theories of the Universe.”
Reference: “Potential solar axion signatures in X-ray observations with the XMM-Newton observatory” by G.W. Fraser, A.M. Read, S. Sembay, J.A. Carter and E. Schyns, 15 October 2014, MNRAS.
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stu1865
arXiv: 1403.2436
View you picture above of the galaxy and concentrate on the dark side of the picture, you will see dark matter (dark-lines), human beings are used to looking at points of light not points of black (optical-illusion,
FOR MORK to have a chuckle in his quantum enjoyment
YOU WILL ALSO SEE THE CREATION OF THE COSMIC EGG
THE QUANTUM AGE HAS ARRIVED TO HOLD THE YOKE WITHIN THE SHELL. BE READY FOR A NEW BIRTHDAY
Who knows what what constitutes the universe that can not conclude that in the universe there is no dark matter or dark energy, or something like that can be detected by any instrument of matter.
The universe is filled with ether, from which it was created, produced and disappears substances by certain cycles of the process of creation and dissolution.
Ether can not be registered because it is not matter, but the means of which it produces substances by high vibrations in the air, where they form a string and in their cross-sections generated quarks and further formation of particles until a celestial body.
Hello Milovic! Ether is a very old stale concept to account for electromagnetic propagation in a very rigid but still very very light medium so that transverse waves can sail through without any resistance. Once, quantum concept has gained strength, Ether concept had vanished altogether. The propagation of E-M Waves is explained by photons or force particles in vacuum or space altogether. Dark Matter is altogether a different concept which repels solid bodies like galaxies at fantastic speed and its presence had been confirmed by Galactic Lensing method. Dark Matter can radiate force but Ether cannot. So, please don’t bring stale things once again in Modern Physics. Thank You.
Madanagopal, it seems that you are one of those that did not possess any of the spiritual entity of the universe and you need tens of thousands of years to figure out what that universe. No wonder they are so realize ether as base from which all caused by action of the Absolute consciousness of the universe. You are a fan of some worthless and illogical stories about how the universe was created, and you think that you are authorized to grant a worthless interpretation of the universe and everything in it that seems to not understand anything. One day you will see that your “bag” filled with ether body, and with that there is absolute consciousness of the universe and then you’ll have to apologize air you’ve also diminish. First, look at who you are, who you were formed, from which it is composed, where you came from, why you’re here now, and where to go in the future, and why you have the body (hardware) filled with various software “that you seem completely withered away, when not distinguish God and that all of what you prepared. When you ponder, then you can talk about air and give his personal opinion, not that always denies others from others, and statements, which are mostly a mirage.
Question
What happens when everything sucks in (crunch-time), all laws of (phi)sics are broken, supernova goes to big-bang(whoosh), implodes out, alfa and omega reverse space-time opens out into other quantum dimensions, power law,
…… The be all and end all, a new beginning