At the center of our galaxy, there’s a mysterious, diffuse glow given off by gamma rays — powerful radiation usually emitted by high-energy objects such as rapidly rotating or exploding stars.
NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected the glow shortly after launching in 2008, and the light has puzzled scientists ever since, prompting speculation on its cause.
Some astronomers believe the source of the glow to be pulsars — the spinning leftovers of exploded stars — while others point to colliding particles of dark matter, an elusive and invisible form of matter that is believed to be five times more abundant than regular matter.
Many studies have previously found support for both ideas, but there seemed to be a problem with the dark matter theory: The gamma ray glow appeared to match the shape of the galactic bulge — a crowded, bulbous region at the center of the Milky Way that’s mostly made up of old stars, including pulsars. This observation seemed to support the pulsar theory, with experts theorizing that the glow would have taken a more spherical form if its source were dark matter. However, astronomers haven’t been able to observe enough of the pulsars that would be producing the gamma rays to make a conclusive assessment.
Now, new simulations made using supercomputers show for the first time that dark matter collisions could also have created the bulge-shaped glow, adding weight to the dark matter theory.
Continue reading the complete article on the original source
