back to article Stray positrons caught on ISS hint at DARK MATTER source

Data gathered by the International Space Station's (ISS') Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is being cautiously suggested as useful evidence for the existence of dark matter. The AMS is a particle detector on the ISS and keeps its eyes on cosmic rays, in order to observe the high-energy particles they carry. As explained in a …

  1. bearded bearcan

    Balancing the balance

    My checking account currently holds $10.000. That is $90k short of the car I want. But the equation works if I just add enough dark currency

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Re: Balancing the balance

      Place a call to your central bank which will give you all the dark currency you will ever need ... if you have political backing or can reasonably explain that your not buying the car will cause irreparable harm to Main Street.

    2. Geoff May

      Re: Balancing the balance

      So you need $90K of BitCoins, then?

  2. emmanuel goldstein

    Pedant alert

    Opening sentence:

    Data.... *ARE* being suggested...

    1. A Non e-mouse Silver badge
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Pedant alert

        As languages do. Who outside the engineering profession nowadays says "datum?"

        It's a pity we have lost genuinely useful words like "disinterested", but with "data" there is not likely to be any confusion.

        1. Lusty

          Re: Pedant alert

          Cartographers say datum all the time...

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Pedant alert

            All right, engineering and cartographers.

            But then what about a datum line, which has an infinite (aleph 1) number of points on it?

            Perhaps what this really shows is that we should stop pretending that scientific and technical terms are actually Latin words and should follow Latin grammar.

          2. phil dude
            Coat

            Re: Pedant alert

            ...as does one of my supervisors!

            It might be pedantic but its *right*....like most of science really...

            P.

        2. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

          Re: Pedant alert

          It's a pity we have lost genuinely useful words like "disinterested"

          I've just found mine hiding down the back of the sofa. I'm going to take a lot more interest in my disinterest.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Pedant alert

      "Data.... *ARE* being suggested..."

      Merkin pedant alert, I suggest.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Pedant alert

      Data without context is just noise.

      So it comes down to context: if a common context applies to multiple data items then those items comprise a single collection of data items.

      If different data items require different contexts then you have datas.

    4. Scroticus Canis

      Re: Pedant alert

      It's quire obvious that the 'is' refers to the fact of a single suggestion rather than a single datum. I personally use 'is' when the data represents a single set, 'this set' is much smother English than 'these set'.

      A mob is made up from numerous individuals but you refer to it as 'a mob', 'the mob is unruly', etc... 'These mob' just sounds like some foreign person with an English pronunciation problem.

      1. Adam Foxton

        Re: Pedant alert

        But when you're referring to a mob you're referring to a singular subject- the mob. Same with Set- It's a collective noun that allows you to refer to its members as a singular rather than a plural.

        So 'these mob' is nonseneical, but 'these mobs' would make sense if you had multiple mobs.

  3. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

    Very interesting read. The unknown source might be something other than dark matter, but whatever it is, it is new (unless it is Dr Who reversing the polarity of the neutron flow)

    1. Andy E
      Mushroom

      BBC to balme

      I did wonder about that as it seems to coincide with the relaunch of Dr Who.

      1. Paul_Murphy

        Re: BBC to balme

        So you're saying that Dr. Who isn't an entertainment program, but a documentary?

        Where can I subscribe to your newsletter?

        :-)

        1. TitterYeNot
          Coat

          Re: BBC to balme

          "So you're saying that Dr. Who isn't an entertainment program, but a documentary?"

          The documentary version is available separately from BBC Worldwide.

          It features 30 minutes of footage of a Doctor Who costumed Peter Capaldi pointing his Sonic Screwdriver at the camera and shouting in his best psychotic Glaswegian, 'Kiss my sweaty balls you fat fuck'...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Unknown source...

      ... actually, I think it's my toaster. It's been humming and fizzing for a while now and I've had to turn it up to max to get decent toast. I concluded that it's been manufacturing a lot of anti-elecricity and some of it must have leaked upwards out of the two slots on top.

  4. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    > when dark matter particles collide and annihilate each other.

    It think that should be "when dark matter particles decay all by their lonesome".

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "It think that should be "when dark matter particles decay all by their lonesome"."

      I'm not sure if you're being serious. Is there any suggestion that dark matter particles may be unstable and have a positron decay route, rather than needing a collision to make them annihilate?

      AFAIK current ideas are that at one extreme dark matter may only feel gravity, making it behave like a perfect gas of near-point particles in total darkness. But at the other we have WIMPs, which experience the weak force. And this is necessary to provide a mechanism for dark particles to decay, otherwise they will be undetectable.

      WIMPs are psychological particles, because (as Fermilab observes) the search for them involves a degree of wishful thinking. Scientists like things to be detectable. (So do I, or it's no fun any more.)

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
        Paris Hilton

        Re: "It think that should be "when dark matter particles decay all by their lonesome"."

        I have never heard of dark matter annihilation, but decay, yes:

        Synopsis: Sterile Neutrino as Dark Matter Candidate

        A hypothetical neutrino that does not interact through the weak force could be the source of a recently detected x-ray emission line coming from galaxy clusters. However, previous models using this so-called “sterile” neutrino as a form of dark matter were not able to satisfy constraints from cosmological observations. Now, writing in Physical Review Letters, Kevork Abazajian of the University of California, Irvine, shows that a sterile neutrino with a mass of 7 kilo-electron-volts (keV) could be a viable dark matter candidate that both explains the new x-ray data and solves some long-standing problems in galaxy structure formation.

        Cosmologists have long considered neutrinos as possible dark matter particles. However, because of their small mass (less than about 1 eV), conventional neutrinos are too fast, or “hot,” to form the dense dark matter structures needed to hold galaxies and galaxy clusters together. By contrast, sterile neutrinos, which result from certain neutrino theories, can have larger masses and could have been naturally produced in the big bang by neutrino flavor mixing.

        The problem has been that sterile neutrinos should decay, producing an x-ray signal that no one has observed—until maybe now. Earlier in 2014, an analysis of galaxy cluster data revealed an x-ray emission line, which is consistent with the decay of a 7-keV sterile neutrino. Normally, dark matter with this mass would be too “warm” to match galaxy data. However, Abazajian showed that the sterile neutrinos could have a “cooler” momentum distribution if they were produced through resonantly enhanced neutrino flavor mixing (the MSW effect). When Abazajian plugged this neutrino into a cosmological model, he found it could explain both the small number of Milky Way satellite galaxies and their central densities, which have eluded the currently favored cold dark matter model. – Michael Schirber

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: "It think that should be "when dark matter particles decay all by their lonesome"."

          "I have never heard of dark matter annihilation"

          GLAST diagram

          Positrons being produced near the word "Neutrinos" on the left hand diagram.

          Fermi telescope

          The sterile neutron hypothesis results in x rays, not positrons.

          1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

            Re: "It think that should be "when dark matter particles decay all by their lonesome"."

            Ah yes. You are correct of course. Sorry, more coffee is needed.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: "It think that should be "when dark matter particles decay all by their lonesome"."

              Upvoted because I like it when people can have a civilised discussion on El Reg.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Shirley, shouldn't it be dark matter particles colliding with anti-dark matter particles that result in annihilation?

      But then if anti-matter (electron + positron) can be created by a pair of gamma photons, and photons are their own anti-particles, then shouldn't we be talking about dark-matter anti-anti-particles?

      Posicles?

  5. W T Riker

    Snappy title

    I love the snappy title of the paper: "Electron and Positron Fluxes in Primary Cosmic Rays Measured with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station"

    You can't do any serious science without a bloated title - "Positron Fluxes in Space" is too short.

    1. Swarthy

      Re: Snappy title

      You can't do any serious science without a bloated title - "Positron Fluxes in Space" is too short.

      I agree wholeheartedly! It should be "Positron Fluxes IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE"

  6. DropBear
    Terminator

    Yes, yes...

    ...but are those 580000 positrons finally enough to construct a brain? Asimov called, and he wants to know why we have not built a single one yet.

    1. willi0000000

      Re: Yes, yes...

      we have, or can manufacture, plenty of positrons to build Asimov's brain.

      [the problem is getting the House and Senate to pass The Three Laws]

  7. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Coat

    I think

    that the Universe's IT department noticed that there was interest in this "dark matter" thingy and have just published an update to the bin/erg/obsc/sources library.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Desperate

    Utter garbage. It is more likely evidence of anti-matter, which has considerably more evidence for its existence than dark matter.

    1. Swarthy
      Boffin

      Re: Desperate

      Using positrons (being anti-electrons) as evidence for anti-matter is a bit like using photons as evidence for light.

      Or The Reg comments as evidence for the existence of pedantry.

    2. Sir Sham Cad

      Re: evidence of anti-matter

      Erm, it's a bit more than that. positrons *are* antimatter. They are the antiparticle of the electron and will annihilate if they collide with one. Antimatter (more correctly Antiparticles) don't need any more evidence of existence, they're an actual thing.

      Where the ambiguity comes in is that an assumption has been made (from the article which I'm sure you've read) "it is assumed they are created when dark matter particles collide and annihilate each other." and so this assumption is leaned upon as explanation for the larger than expected number of positrons. So, the confidence in these extra observed positrons signalling extra dark matter collisions hinges entirely on the confidence of the central assumption.

      Not utter garbage at all, then, just not a high confidence conclusion. Which, to be fair, was what the author of the article said at the end.

  9. TeeCee Gold badge
    Joke

    "Stray positrons"

    Just £2.99 a month will let you adopt a positron.

    You'll get a picture of your positron, a monthly newsletter telling you all about the work of the Positron Sanctuary* and, as a special offer this week only, a cuddly positron hand-crafted from dark matter plush.

    *The positron sanctuary is a registered charity in England and Wales.

    1. Chris G

      Re: "Stray positrons"

      Where is the sanctuary? I want to come and cuddle on!

      Can I have one as a pet and are there any negatives to owning one?

      1. Steve Knox

        Re: "Stray positrons"

        ... are there any negatives to owning one?

        No, just a very small positive.

  10. Martin Budden Silver badge
    Coat

    They found a source of positrons?

    That's bananas!

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re. They found a cource of positrons?

    Oh ha ha, yes indeed this is correct. 0.001% of decays IIRC.

    As an aside, 40K's radioactivity means if you ate 100000 bananas you would accumulate a lethal dose of radiation.

    (assuming your stomach didn't explode first!)

  12. roger stillick
    Alien

    Source of positrons ?? man made n observed in Cosmic Rays since the 1930's...

    Currantly being used in Medical Imaging, called PET / CT... positrons were the first man made radioactive sources in the 1930's, cosmic Rays from Earth's Lightning strikes n hi energy galactic sourced particles both decay into positron emmission n other particles... we have been looking at these things since 1934.

    IMHO= ISS positron detecter ?? sure... seeing some positrons and calling dark matter is similar to calling any newfound object a UFO, which by definition it is... just no LGM's looking out of viewing ports on the Real UFO's that aren't there.

    Please Note= positrons are part of the VISIBLE, countable, Universe and Not by anyone's definition= "Dark Matter"... RS.

    1. Conundrum1885

      Re: Source of positrons ?? man made n observed in Cosmic Rays since the 1930's...

      MiHsC, simples.

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