Thunderbolts Forum v3.0

nick c wrote: ↑Tue Mar 11, 2025 6:12 pm So if 99% of the known Universe is plasma, how could something that is less than 1% of the total be the "normal" state?

For this study, researchers from King’s College London first noticed something strange about the clouds at the center of the Milky Way. 

“At the centre of our galaxy sit huge clouds of positively charged hydrogen, a mystery to scientists for decades because normally the gas is neutral. So, what is supplying enough energy to knock the negatively charged electrons out of them?” said Shyam Balaji, postdoctoral research fellow at King’s College London, in a press release. 

“The energy signatures radiating from this part of our Galaxy suggest that there is a constant, roiling source of energy doing just that, and our data says it might come from a much lighter form of dark matter than current models consider,” Balaji continued in a press release.

First of all, what’s this claim that “normally’ hydrogen is neutral?

A mysterious phenomenon at the center of our galaxy could be the result of a different type of dark matter.

… snip …

In this first of its kind study, scientists have taken a step closer to understanding the elusive mystery matter. They believe a reimagined candidate for dark matter could be behind unexplained chemical reactions taking place in the Milky Way.

Dr. Shyam Balaji, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at King's College London and one of the lead authors of the study explains, "At the center of our galaxy sit huge clouds of positively charged hydrogen, a mystery to scientists for decades because normally the gas is neutral. So, what is supplying enough energy to knock the negatively charged electrons out of them?

The Universe Is Hiding Something Huge – And Scientists Are Closer Than Ever to Finding It

Scientists think it's possible that shrouds of hypothetical particles called "axions" could surround extreme, dead stars called "neutron stars." If true, this could bring us one step closer to solving the mystery of dark matter.

"This is the first time this type of axion cloud has been discussed, so naturally, there is a lot more work to be done," Noordhuis said. "There is already a follow-up research focusing on how these bound axions can change the dynamics of neutron stars themselves. For example, more work in this direction concerning the non-trivial interplay between axions and the electrodynamics in these systems is sure to follow as well."

It is little surprise that for a theory that crosses scientific disciplines ranging from astrophysics to particle physics, a great deal of collaboration between fields will be needed to fully investigate the potential connection between dark matter, axions and neutron stars.

"A full understanding of axion clouds will require complementary efforts from multiple branches of physics, including particle astrophysics, plasma physics and observational radio astronomy," Noordhuis said. This work thereby opens up a new, cross-disciplinary field with lots of opportunities for future research."

Closest Ever To Detecting Dark Matter

We could be closer to understanding the mystery behind what dark matter is, following ...

ESA prepares Euclid spacecraft to probe dark energy and dark matter

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In a press statement, Euclid project manager Giuseppe Racca described that we know virtually nothing about dark energy and matter as a "cosmic embarrassment".

ESA’s new space telescope could finally give us an understanding of dark matter

Dozens of newly discovered gravitational lenses could reveal ancient galaxies and the nature of dark matter

Dark Matter Experiment Set To Help Solve the Biggest Mystery in the Universe

Although we may still be in the dark about what dark matter is, we now have a better idea about what it isn’t.

Australia’s first major contribution to dark matter detection — the ORGAN Experiment — is now online and searching for dark matter, bringing us a step closer to solving one of the biggest mysteries of the universe.

After four years of research and development, ORGAN has completed its first substantive search for axions — a promising candidate for dark matter. ... snip ... The first results from ORGAN rule out a popular theory about the nature of dark matter, narrowing the possibilities for what it could be ... snip ... “Although we didn’t find any, it’s very exciting because it’s Australia’s first large-scale, long-term direct dark matter detection experiment. “It’s also given us useful information about what axion dark matter isn’t, which tells future axion searches across the globe where not to look.”

Aaron said the team hopes to begin their next search later this year.

“We’re currently making technical improvements to our detector to achieve greater sensitivity and enable wider-ranging searches,” he said.

This research was supported by funding from the Australian Research Council and the Australian Research Council Centres of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems and Dark Matter Particle Physics.

because THEY SURELY DO.

The team believes the detector will return 20 times more data over the duration of the experiment and the chance of finding dark matter with LZ is 'probably less than 50 percent but more than 10 percent,' said Hugh Lippincott, a physicist and spokesman for the experiment in a Thursday news conference, as reported by CBS News.

https://www.cnet.com/science/space/worl ... g-results/

https://interestingengineering.com/the- ... nt-results

A massive new effort to detect the elusive substance has reported its first results. Following a time-honored tradition of dark matter hunters, the experiment, called LZ, didn’t find dark matter. But it has done that better than ever before, physicists report July 7 in a virtual webinar and a paper posted on LZ’s website.

Using only about 60 days’ worth of data, LZ has already surpassed earlier efforts to pin down WIMPs (SN: 5/28/18). “It’s really impressive what they’ve been able to pull off; it’s a technological marvel,” says theoretical physicist Dan Hooper of Fermilab in Batavia, Ill, who was not involved with the study.

Now that the detector has proven its potential, says LZ physicist Kevin Lesko of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, “we’re excited about what we’re going to see.”