2024 … a year of dark matter gnomes?

[BeAChooser]

https://www.space.com/the-universe/how- ... -particles

Indeed, over the past 12 months there has been a great deal of exciting particle action on Earth and in space — and we begin our round-up of 2024's particle physics stories with news that sounds more like science fiction.

Here are some of the stories …

The year we connected antimatter to dark matter?

Notice the question mark? That’s a clue this a gnome, and indeed, it’s only a theory that dark matter might be producing anti-matter. Which is funny given that the article admits “nobody knows what dark matter is made from” right after proposing the gnome.

The year crashing galaxy clusters revealed the motion of dark matter

The description of how this is revealed is filled with nothing but “hot gas”, “gas”, and more “hot gas”. No mention of plasma or electromagnetism. Which makes me suspect they’re just blowing more “hot gas”, so to speak.

The year we began waiting for a supernova to reveal the truth about dark matter

LOL! This one is funny. They’ve been waiting for 50 years to see the truth about dark matter revealed. And when one idea fails, there’s always another one to feed the beast. I wonder how long this wait will go on before they admit failure … once again? Long enough to pay off another set of astrophysicist mortgages? Perhaps so, since they admit that this detection method will require “a degree of luck and perfect timing.” And, of course, it will also require “a new constellation of gamma-ray satellites, which they are calling the Galactic Axion Instrument for Supernova, or GALAXIS, which would cover the whole sky 24/5, waiting and watching.” At taxpayer expense.

The year we learned of a "Dark Big Bang"?

Again, a question mark, indicating a gnome .. a gnome that in this case rules out axions and wimps that the other gnomes assume exist. Gnomes competing with gnomes competing with gnomes. What a mess, but ripe with opportunities for grifters.

[BeAChooser]

More on GALAXIS …

https://www.sciencealert.com/we-could-b ... ark-matter

We Could Be Just 10 Seconds Away From Discovering Dark Matter

Yes, folks … we’re THAT close!

When the next nearby supernova goes off, any gamma-ray telescope pointing in the right direction might be treated to more than a light show – it could quickly confirm the existence of one of the most promising dark matter candidates.

Astrophysicists at the University of California, Berkeley predict that within the first 10 seconds of a supernova, enough hypothetical particles called axions could be emitted to prove they exist in a relative blink.

But then …

Of course, that detection requires that we have a gamma-ray telescope looking in the vicinity of such an explosion at just the right time. Currently that job falls solely on the Fermi Space Telescope, which still only has a 1 in 10 chance of catching the show.

So, the researchers propose launching the GALactic AXion Instrument for Supernova (GALAXIS) – a fleet of gamma-ray satellites that can watch 100 percent of the sky at all times. The detection or absence of axions during a supernova could be equally valuable outcomes, but there's a time crunch.

Yeah, folks, keep feeding the monster with your tax dollars. It's appetite is insatiable. Notice though, that no one is providing a cost estimate for this new “fleet” of satellites that they absolutely need. They rarely do tell us how much these things will cost these days. Maybe they feel they need to hide such information from the public. For our own good, of course. But you know what the cost was of the Fermi Gamma-Ray Telescope they mention? Articles on the internet say it cost $690 million in 2008 dollars. So I suspect we’re looking at another multi-billion dollar boondoggle.

"It would be a real shame if a supernova went off tomorrow and we missed an opportunity to detect the axion – it might not come back for another 50 years."

Oh … what a shame. But would anyone alive (you know, the people who will live the next 50 years) benefit AT ALL from an axion detection? Call me extremely skeptical. And since they can't tell us how we benefit from a dark matter detection, what’s the rush?