A dark matter "storm" may be passing the Sun and might be seen here on
Earth, according to scientific speculation.
The research team, lead by Ciaran O'Hare from the University of Zaragoza in
Spain, examined the S1 stream, a group of neighboring stars travelling in
the same general direction. According to a statement from APS Physics, they
are "suspected to be the remnant[s] of a dwarf galaxy that was devoured by
the Milky Way billions of years ago."
The ESA's Gaia spacecraft, which is cataloging a billion stars in our
galaxy, discovered the S1 stream, which contains 30,000 stars, last year. In
our galaxy, there are around 30 such streams that are each the remains of
earlier collisions.
However, S1 is particularly intriguing since it is presently "blowing" by
us at a speed of around 500 kilometers per second (310 miles per second).
The dark matter close to us may be affected noticeably, according to the
researchers.
Future WIMP detectors may discover an influence from S1, the statement
said. "Current detectors probing for weakly interacting massive particles
(WIMPs), one extensively studied type of dark matter, probably won't find
any effect from S1."
All galaxies are believed to have originated inside a sizable halo of dark
matter, which is invisible to the human eye and does not interact with
ordinary matter. However, the scientists discovered that around 10 billion
solar masses of dark matter, which originated in the initial dwarf galaxy,
were moving along S1.
A star stream depicted passing by our Sun. Jon Lomberg/NASA/C. O'Hare The
quantity of dark matter that seems to emanate from the same area of sky as
the ordinary dark matter wind will substantially rise once the S1 stream
"hits the Solar System slap in the face," according to the authors.
In fact, it should create a distinctive ring-like structure around this
wind, which directed dark matter detectors might readily detect in the
future.
ScienceAlert also mentioned that axions, which are speculative particles
500 million times lighter than an electron and may make up dark matter, may
be detectable from the stream. They claimed that in the presence of a strong
magnetic field, "[t]hese ultralight particles, which we cannot see, may be
transformed to photons, which we can see."
Despite several attempts, there has never been a direct discovery of dark
matter. But perhaps there will be a fascinating opportunity to do so with
this "storm."
