A Physicist Needs to Flip Jupiter’s Largest Moon Right into a Gigantic Darkish Matter Detector

When trying to find the unknown, traditional physics knowledge holds {that a} bigger detector boosts the chances of discovery. A physicist is taking that recommendation to coronary heart, advancing a daring plan to make use of none aside from Ganymede—Jupiter’s largest moon—as a darkish matter detector on an astronomical scale.

Darkish matter refers back to the “invisible” mass that supposedly constitutes 85% of the universe. There’s appreciable evidence that darkish matter exists, nevertheless it’s “darkish,” which means it doesn’t reply to mild and really weakly interacts with different matter. The seek for darkish matter has examined the boundaries of physicists’ creativity, however a proposal by William DeRocco, a physicist on the College of Maryland, could be the most extraordinary but. In a preprint submitted to arXiv, Rocco means that Ganymede’s craters might retailer proof of darkish matter particles, which spacecraft like NASA’s Europa Clipper or ESA’s JUICE might observe throughout their respective missions.

The paper, which has but to be peer-reviewed, proposes that huge darkish matter particles might have struck and penetrated Ganymede’s thick, icy floor, leaving deep, broad ruptures. Not like the comparatively small-sized candidates for darkish matter that ground-based detectors are trying to find, these particles can be a lot bigger. These extra-large darkish matter particles would create “darkish matter craters”—smaller dents on Ganymede’s floor comprised of distinctive minerals pulled to the floor from deep contained in the moon’s oceans. 

“For those who used one thing like ground-penetrating radar, you would possibly have the ability to see this column of melted ice going all the best way down by way of the ice,” DeRocco defined in an interview with New Scientist. Learning Ganymede’s floor with this proposal in thoughts might uncover some surprising insights about cosmic darkish matter, in line with the paper.

In precept, the proposal sounds promising, Bradley Kavanaugh, an astrophysicist on the College of Cantabria in Spain who was not concerned within the examine, additionally informed New Scientist. On the identical time—like all darkish matter experiments—there may be nonetheless no definitive proof that such heavy, huge darkish matter particles truly exist.

If all of this sounds bonkers, I don’t blame you. Nonetheless, it’s necessary to keep in mind that, as many physicists are eager to level out, fixing a physics thriller typically means testing bold, unconventional ideas. And whereas there’s no decisive proof that this specific proposal is appropriate, there isn’t any evidence to discount it, either. We’ll have to attend and see if NASA or ESA takes up DeRocco’s concept, and in the event that they do, whether or not Ganymede actually does have a floor dotted with darkish matter craters.