Today’s inspiration post is about Astrophysics and Dark Matter!

When I was a kid, galaxies, stars, and other planets were always the primary sources of my writing inspiration. Once I did even write a few chapters about intra-galactical adventures and space crime. 

Later on, my astronomical interests have intertwined with astrology. I was learning how to read cosmograms, identify the meaning of planets in different astrological houses. Of course, I was interested as well in understanding the compatibility between people from astrological point of view.

Astrophysics and Dark Matter

Currently, I am interested in astrophysics. It is the astronomy branch that applies physics and chemistry principles to better understand the origin of astronomical objects. What is very intriguing about the universe is that only 5% of it visible. We can see galaxies, stars, planets. However, the rest 25% of it made of the mystical invisible substance, dark matter. The force that repels gravity, called dark energy (70%).  [1]

Astrophysicists have not yet discovered the dark matter directly. However, there are theories and hints from the universe, bringing hope that dark matter and dark energy exist.

For example, astronomical observations discovered that stars have the same speed at every point of the galaxy disk. According to physics laws, the speed of the galaxy’s outer stars should slow down, and inner stars speed up closer to the center. [11] However, that is not what is happening. Scientists explained it by gravitational effects of the dark matter halo. [2] Another evidence is optical illusions on the pictures of galaxies. If you look at pictures of galaxies, you can see rings and arcs of lights, which are probably caused by dark matter. [1]

TED Talk about Astrophysics

I recommend you to check a talk from Anil Ananthaswamy at the INK conference in the association with TED. Anil’s talk about extreme astrophysics inspired me to learn more about astrophysics.

He had traveled all over the globe to document how astrophysicists do their job of discovering evidence of dark matter. I did not know that scientists can run experiments for decades, building theories on something that might not even exist. For example, Russian astrophysicists in Siberia have spent more than 20 years searching for dark matter. They do conduct experiments on Baikal every winter, for 20 years.

Research – Minnesita, USA

Anil has also mentioned one experiment that interested me a lot, and I researched more to learn more about it. In Minnesota, Soudan Underground Mine, 2341 feet below the surface, had a lab that was looking for signs of dark matter particles, which, while going through our planet, could hit underground detectors. Why exactly underground? As Anil explained, the experiment required an absolute environmental silence, without any interference of cosmic and radioactive signals. Therefore, deeper the underground mine, better conditions for detecting dark matter particles.

I dug deeper and found out that the Soudan Mine lab shut down several years ago because of the lack of projects’ success. [6] At the interview with the lab, it was said that they needed a more prominent, a quieter, and a deeper lab. In the end, they moved to the SNOLAB, in Sudbury, Ontario, to a nickel mine, which is three times deeper than the Soudan mine, 6800 feet below the surface. [3] I can’t even imagine how deep this mine is and how much effort did it take to move down all equipment, not speaking about providing electricity and water for employees.

Experiment

The lab improved their detector for observing dark matter particles and presented the prototype of a detector, that can search for much lighter dark matter particles. [4] This type of detector can recognize tiny vibrations caused by dark matter particles, running through the supercooled silicon and germanium crystals. This experiment is expected to be 50 times more sensitive and let scientists more likely catch dark matter particles with the smaller mass. [5]

I feel, if the project of enforcing the detector succeeds, astrophysicists might discover the signs of the dark matter. Currently, this lab is improving the quality of crystals and better understanding the crystals’ fundamental physics. [4] If you want to read more about the SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment detector, you can read it here.  

Dark Matter Theory

One of the ways to observe dark matter indirectly is to go underwater. There is the theory that if the dark matter exists, its particles should smash together and produce new particles, one of them is a neutrino. When neutrinos hit the water, they leave the flash of blue light. Therefore, this experiment can and only happen with a large volume of water. [7]

Neutrino

Lake Baikal Neutrino Observatory conducts that experiment, by immersing the Deep-Underwater Neutrino Telescope around 1 kilometer beneath the lake surface to detect newly produced particles. This can help scientists to understand the dark matter indirectly. This telescope is one of the most massive neutrino detectors in the world.[8] Moreover, I checked the latest news about Russian underwater neutrino telescope. I found out that in 2020, Neutrino Observatory might finish its brand-new underwater Gigaton Water Detector Neutrino Telescope, which might facilitate the observation of neutrinos more efficiently. [9]

To conclude this post, there are many mysteries in the universe, and it seems that 2020 might bring new observations, new experiments, and discoveries into astrophysics. I am looking forward to finding out what dark matter really is.

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Resources:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/dark-matter/
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter_halo
3. http://www.startribune.com/soudan-mine-losing-research-projects/387114021/
4. https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/dark-matter-vibes
5. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a20634270/dark-matter-supercdms-snolab/
6. http://www.startribune.com/soudan-mine-losing-research-projects/387114021/
7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCt1OQU9oDQ&t=142s
8. http://www.inr.troitsk.ru/eng/ebgnt.html
9. https://www.rt.com/news/260069-russia-baikal-neutrino-telescope/
10. https://sputniknews.com/science/201812061070445539-et-signal-astrophysicists/

11. https://www.e-education.psu.edu/astro801/content/l2_p5.html

EDITOR’S NOTE: The post was created only with an educational purposes, not pursuing any profit or financial goals.