The discovery of gamma rays emitting dwarf galaxy orbiting around the Milky Way has been made by a panel of scientists very recently. They are hopeful that this will enhance their depth of knowledge on dark matter even further.
It is believed by scientists that a huge part of the Universe consists of dark matter. Awareness of the existence of the invisible dark matter is there amongst astronomers, but very little is known about them. The galaxies are held together because of the gravitational pull of the dark matter which makes it a significant part of the Universe. It is difficult for scientists to understand dark matter since the particles within them are not known to absorb, emit or reflect light.
This new discovery is giving some new insights on the matter of dark matter as it is not usual for dwarf galaxies to give out large quantities of gamma rays.
This dwarf galaxy a.k.a. Reticulum 2 has been discovered with the help of the data obtained by Dark Energy Survey and it is also believed to be one of the nearest dwarf galaxies ever spotted. Not only that, but the rays emitted from Reticulum 2 is higher than usual.
Savvas Koushiappas, an assistant professor of physics at the Brown University says “In the search for dark matter, gamma rays from a dwarf galaxy have long been considered a very strong signature. It seems like we may now be detecting such a thing for the first time.”
Matthew Walker, an assistant professor of physics at the Carnegie Mellon University said that very little can be understood about the behavior of dark matter from the particles detected from the gravitational pull of the dark matter. He said “But now we may have a non-gravitational detection that shows dark matter behaving like a particle, which is a holy grail of sorts.”
According to Walker, hidden sources in the dwarf galaxy could be responsible for the emission of gamma rays. Scientists are positive about finding more from Reticulum 2 and are suggesting that given that their primary level of results is exhilarating, much more work awaits them to comprehend the depths of dark matter. This particular discovery brings them one step closer to know the origin of dark matter.
