In search of the infamous dark matter, which cannot be seen, nor measured, and represents about 85% of all subject matter in the universe, scientists have concentrated their research on liquid xenon underground tanks, large -scale cosmological observations and particle accelerators.
Now a team of researchers at the University of California, Riverside, is proposing an unprecedented way to detect these likely hypothetical fundamental particles: the nearly six thousand natural exoplanets already discovered to this dayaccording to the last numbers of.
The idea is not only intuitive, but it rests on consistent calculations and physical models, as dark matter interacts gravitational (bends the spacetime). Thus, a particle of dark matter would be more likely to collide with an exoplanet, which is trillion times greater than any earthly detector.
In addition to stronger severity, these extrasoling giants have a feature that would allow dark matter particles to gradually accumulate in their nuclei: low temperatures, which make atoms move more slowly.
According to the study, a particle of overweight dark matter (which has about one million times the mass of a proton) enters the exoplanet, collides with atoms inside, loses energy and speed, and is “trapped” by the gravity of the planet.
A new theory on black microburats
This concentration of dark matter particles in the core of giant exoplanets would result in a dramatic consequence. “If dark matter particles are heavy and not annihilated,” according to the first author of the article.
For astrophysicist Mehrdad Poroutan-Mehr, if it is possible to find black holes with the mass of a planet, this may prove that dark matter is formed by resistant, resistant particles that do not destroy each other and therefore accumulate until it occurs in the stars.
Although the concept of black microbures has already been discussed earlier, especially in contexts linked to dark dark matter, the new study proposes an unprecedented theory about its formation: the accumulation of dark matter in exoplanets.
On the other hand, the black hole resulting from the planetary collapse could function as a kind of “indirect signature” of dark matter Superweight that originated him. That is, if we cannot “see” dark matter, we can seek its visible gravitational effects on exoplanets.
As it is also impossible to directly observe the black microbraco itself, research itself suggests three observational clues: planets that disappear and leave gravitational effects, emissions of energy cosmic radiation (when the “cosmic monster feeds”) and exoplanets with very hot temperatures.
Using exoplanets to detect dark matter
In a statement, Phoroutan-Mehh explains that, to this day, exoplanets have remained unexplored in dark matter research due to the scarcity of data. However, with the expansion of current knowledge, these objects “can be used to test and challenge different models of dark matter.”
in different and detectable ways. For example, some models suggest that dark matter can warm neutron stars, providing clues about their fundamental properties.
So far, scientists have used other astronomical objects such as “natural laboratories”: the sun, neutron stars and white dwarfs. For example, if we observed an ancient neutron star, which should be cold, but it is hot, that would be evidence of dark matter that thermally interacts.
“If astronomers discovered a population of black holes in the size of planetsThis could offer strong evidence in favor of the model of overweight and non-annihilating dark matter, ”says Phoroutan-Mehr. Even exoplanets that have not collapsed in black holes can discard or refine theoretical models.
Providently, the study connects particle theory invisible with observational astrophysics and suggests indirect signs of something we have not yet been able to detect. However, the possible generation of black planetary mass minibuks points to observational predictions and opens new doors for the understanding of dark matter.
