X-ray Reading Bump Hints At Dark Matter

A bump in X-ray readings from the Chandra-X-ray observatory that appears to be similar to bumps seen with X-rays from other telescopes has been found by a team of space researchers with members from Yale University, MIT and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Such bumps have been theorized to represent the decay of dark matter, which could indirectly prove it exists. The team has written a paper describing their results and have posted it on the arXiv preprint server.

Physicists around the globe continue to be perplexed by dark matter and the dearth of evidence showing that it actually exists. In this new effort, the researchers were looking at data from a telescope orbiting the Earth—the Chandra X-ray observatory. The observatory was looking at X-ray signals from deep space when it came across an unexpected line of X-ray energy at approximately 3,500 electron volts.

The team suggests that if the bump is due to dark matter, it would likely be caused by such material existing in a region surrounding the Milky Way galaxy. They note that the intensity of the bump is consistent with theories regarding dark matter in other parts of the galaxy such as at the center of the Milky Way—a source of signals that have been found to be stronger, which aligns with logic that suggests dark matter would be denser in places where there are more stars. Also, the bump was similar to readings found by researchers at several other observatories, which reduces the chances of the bump being an anomaly or system malfunction. Oddly, others looking at the same parts of sky have not observed any bump at all.

Unfortunately, the X-ray bump, despite being observed by multiple teams, is not proof of dark matter, because it is still possible that it is due to something else. The finding does, however, rule out some other theoretical sources, such as random sulfur ions seizing electrons from hydrogen atoms hanging around in otherwise empty space. It also seems very unlikely the bump came about due to the type of technology used to observe it. For some, that may leave dark matter as the only possible explanation—others will want something a little more concrete.

More information: Phys.org