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Could mysterious signal be dark matter?

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dark matter?/NASA

240 million light years from Earth? NASA astonomers clearly very much want to believe so:

NASA notes that normal matter may also have created the emission line, which appeared in the Perseus galaxy cluster, but astronomers are excited at the prospect that the sterile neutrinos may be at play. The scientists’ next step will be combining the data with results from other missions to see if the same X-ray signal appears in other galaxy clusters. Thus far, the line has also been found in 73 other galaxy clusters using NASA’s XMM-Newton.

“We know that the dark matter explanation is a long shot, but the pay-off would be huge if we’re right,” Esra Bulbul, leader of the study and a fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told NASA. “We’re going to keep testing this interpretation and see where it takes us.”

Based on the cosmic dust dust-up from BICEP (= not a multiverse, just signals from some dust), we’d recommend caution for now.

See also: The Science Fictions series at your fingertips (cosmology).

and

So the Higgs boson is fine-tuned?

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Comments
Sterile neutrons. Who'd want to study that? Perhaps we should consider a quantum solution to this dilemma! How about borrowing the concept of Schroedinger's genitals from the theory of self thread? That would likely make this a fertile area for research...anthropic
June 28, 2014
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With years of Hype surrounding the search for the elusive mysterious Dark Matter, I must admit I'm a bit disappointed. Expecting Neil degrasse Tyson and getting Sheldon Cooper. How long now before we learn the sterile neutrinos are incredibly fine tuned. FCOL i was really hoping for batman winged shaped stuff or simething to be Dark Matter. Sterile neutrinos yawn. Fine tuned? Yawn again.ppolish
June 26, 2014
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Maybe a payoff in regards to textbook revenue? Have to be changed from “dark matter” to “sterile neutrino”. “Dark Matter” sounds more exciting than “Sterile Neutrino”. Oh well.
Yes, that's a good point! Why didn't I realize that myself? I kept wondering about that 'huge payoff' but couldn't figure out what it could be. Thank you for the information.Dionisio
June 26, 2014
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Maybe a payoff in regards to textbook revenue? Have to be changed from "dark matter" to "sterile neutrino". "Dark Matter" sounds more exciting than "Sterile Neutrino". Oh well.ppolish
June 26, 2014
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“We know that the dark matter explanation is a long shot, but the pay-off would be huge if we’re right,”
Please, forgive my ignorance, but what 'huge payoff' are they talking about here? A cancer cure vaccine or another major medical breakthrough?Dionisio
June 26, 2014
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