A new study of gamma-ray light from the center of our galaxy makes the strongest case to date that some of this emission may arise from dark matter, an unknown substance making up most of the material universe. Using publicly available data from NASAs Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, independent scientists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Chicago have developed new maps showing that the galactic center produces more high- energy gamma rays than can be explained by known sources and that this excess emission is consistent with some forms of dark matter. The new maps allow us to analyze the excess and test whether more conventional explanations, such as the presence of undiscovered pulsars or cosmic-ray collisions on gas clouds, can account for it, said Dan Hooper, an astrophysicist at Fermilab in Batavia, Ill., and a lead author of the study. The signal we find cannot be explained by currently proposed alternatives and is in close agreement with the predictions of very simple dark matter models.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 17:59:53 +0000
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