Two physicists have just proposed a new idea: dark matter can raise the temperature of exoplanets (exoplanets). According to them, the space telescopes that have been developed will soon prove this claim, while also tracking the mysterious matter and how it is distributed in the Milky Way.
“In science, we rarely come across new ideas,” said Sara Seager, a collaborating astronaut at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and not connected to the new research report. “So I’m very interested in the relationship between dark matter and exoplanets.”
For many decades, astrophysicists believed that invisible dark matter enveloped the galaxy, which was no different from the glass of a marble coating its inner band of color. The gravitational force of dark matter is an important factor in explaining why stars are not thrown out of galaxies spinning at breakneck speeds.
Physicists assume that dark matter is made up of elementary particles recovered after the Big Bang. But so far, all the evidence proving that matter exists has been deduced from the influence of gravity; We have never seen dark matter interact directly with ordinary matter.
Some astrophysicists look up to find the effects of dark matter particles. Many people believe that when a pair of particles collide, they will annihilate each other to produce observable particles. For example, the researchers saw signs of dark matter in the center of the Milky Way, thought to be dense with invisible matter: they discovered mysterious little bands of light. However, scientists are still discussing their origin, it is not clear whether it is the influence of dark matter or the effect of gravity produced by a celestial body (such as neutron stars or black holes).
The latest research from Rebecca Leane, a particle theory physicist at MIT and Juri Smirnov, a cosmic particle physicist at Ohio State University, suggests using exoplanets as tools for detecting materials. The mysterious particles can be brought together by the gravitational pull of the planet’s core, and here they can interact with each other, canceling out to release heat, thereby increasing the core temperature of the planet.
Many other studies have shown that dark matter can fill objects with extremely strong gravitational forces, such as neutron stars. There was a study published in 2007 that used research data on Earth to give the upper limit for the mass of dark matter particles, but researchers Leane and Smirnov did not believe Earth could be a public measuring instrument. effective.
According to Professor Leane, exoplanets can have a lot more mass than planets in the solar system, so they will have a greater gravitational force, a greater ability to attract dark matter. In addition, with the large number of observable exoplanets (estimated at 300 billion planets, in the Milky Way), the chances of successfully detecting dark matter will be slightly higher.
However, not all exoplanets are satisfactory. To attract even the smallest amount of dark matter, a planet needs to cool enough, which is around a few billion years old since its formation. In addition, the planet must be located far from the central star of the system. “You don’t want to keep an eye out for a sparkling candle in a forest fire,” says Professor Smirnov.
Ideal targets would be planets that have been suspended, launched from star systems or those that have failed to become stars, are just brown dwarfs. Future telescopes will easily detect these two candidates, measuring how they bend the light emitted from more distant stars.
Destructive dark matter particles could make a planet 14 times larger than Jupiter (which is 439,264 km in diameter, the largest planet in the solar system) from the benchmark 250 degrees K ( -23.15 ° C) up to 500 degrees K (226.85 ° C). The closer the planet is to the galactic center, the more dark matter it will attract. Therefore, if we detect such a planet hovering in what is believed to be the most concentrated dark matter, we will have more evidence to confirm the existence of dark matter.
However, these dark matter detection tools are not yet optimal. Even when the space telescope detected warming planets, so much data was not enough to calculate the mass of dark matter particles and other related indicators. This study also assumes that dark matter particles do not take billions of years to attach to the planet. This assumption should be carefully checked before drawing a final conclusion.
Either way, thanks to telescopes developed by NASA, researchers Leane and Smirnov will always receive the right amount of research data to confirm the accuracy of the new scientific report. The first device, the James Webb Space Telescope, is expected to launch into the air later this year, the second, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (formerly WFIRST), is expected to launch in 2025. Planetary Sara Seager has claimed that astronomers “use certainly WFIRST to find planets floating indefinitely in space ”.
John Beacom, theoretical space physicist, says studies of exoplanets will add data to the search for dark matter particles. Dark matter detectors placed deep underground can only detect dark matter particles that are slightly larger in mass than protons, and exoplanet research tools will be so sensitive that only light particles can be detected. 1/1000 of the mass of the proton. “This ability allows us to determine the properties of dark matter in a way that would be impossible to do on Earth.”
