Dark matter 'halo' simulated
Updated on 07 August 2008
Clumps and streams of mysterious dark matter may be wrapped around the Sun's region of the Milky Way, scientists believe.
Using a powerful supercomputer, researchers simulated the halo of invisible dark matter that is thought to envelop our galaxy.
They found dense clumps and streams of the strange material lurking in the inner part of the halo where the Solar System is situated.
Dark matter appears to account for around 82% of all the matter in the universe, but cannot be seen. Scientists only know it is there because of the gravitational effect it has on stars and galaxies.
No-one knows what dark matter is made of, but according to one theory it consists of weakly interacting massive particles (Wimps). These are expected to annihilate each other and release gamma rays when they collide.
The theory could be proved if the rays are detected by the recently launched Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (Glast).
The computer simulation at the University of California at Santa Cruz took about a month to run and reconstructed the evolution of dark matter after the Big Bang that kicked off the universe.
Earlier, less detailed simulations failed to show dark matter clumping around the Milky Way.
Professor Piero Madau, a senior member of the Santa Cruz team, said: "In previous simulations, the region came out smooth, but now we have enough detail to see clumps of dark matter."
Colleague Dr Juerg Diemand said: "We see a lot of substructure, even in the inner part of the halo where the Solar System is."
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