Scientists ponder mysterious source of cosmic rays

DJM

Padawan Learner
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/20/cosmic_ray_electrons/

Scientists ponder mysterious source of cosmic rays
Exotic object or dark matter?

By Lester Haines

Posted in Space, 20th November 2008 10:45 GMT

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Scientists are pondering the possible source of an "unexpected surplus of cosmic ray electrons at very high energy", and suggest they're either pouring out of an exotic object relatively close to Earth or represent the fall-out from the annihilation of theoretical particles comprising dark matter.

The observation was made by the Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter (ATIC) project, led by boffins from Louisiana State University, which soared to 124,000 feet above Antarctica under a helium balloon "about as large as the interior of the New Orleans Superdome".*


The "surplus" electrons - at energies of about 300-800 billion electron volts - "cannot be explained by the standard model of cosmic ray origin", according to ATIC project principal investigator John P. Wefel. He said: "There must be another source relatively near us that is producing these additional particles."

The research team says such a source, either a "pulsar, mini-quasar, supernova remnant or an intermediate mass black hole", would have to lie within 3,000 light years of Earth.

Jim Adams, ATIC research lead at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, elaborated: "Cosmic ray electrons lose energy during their journey through the galaxy. These losses increase with the energy of the electrons. At the energies measured by our instrument, these energy losses suppress the flow of particles from distant sources, which helps nearby sources stand out."

The bottom line is, according to Wefel, the possibility of "a very interesting object near our solar system waiting to be studied by other instruments".

Alternatively, for those who like your electron sources a little more esoteric, the cosmic rays could be the result of the destruction of "very exotic particles put forward to explain dark matter". Eun-Suk Seo, ATIC lead at the University of Maryland, proposed: "The annihilation of these exotic particles with each other would produce normal particles such as electrons, positrons, protons and antiprotons that can be observed by scientists."

The results of the ATIC research are published in today's issue of Nature. ®

Could this be caused by the approaching wave or perhaps the dark star?
 
I read this earlier today and wondered the same thing.

Then theres this one too

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081119/sc_nm/us_space_darkmatter

Clump of dark matter may loom near solar system
By Will Dunham Will Dunham
Wed Nov 19, 4:25 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A balloon-borne instrument soaring high over Antarctica has found evidence of a possible large clump of mysterious so-called dark matter relatively close to our solar system, scientists said on Wednesday.

It detected an unexpected amount of very high energy cosmic ray electrons coming from an unknown source within about 3,000 light years of the solar system. A light-year is 6 trillion miles (10 trillion km), the distance light travels in a year.

One explanation is that the electrons may have been spawned as dark matter particles collided with one another, triggering their mutual annihilation, according to Louisiana State University physics professor John Wefel.

Scientists think perhaps 25 percent of the universe is made up of dark matter, which responds to gravity the same way as does regular matter such as stars and planets and the like.

While the stuff is thought to be strewn throughout the cosmos, it is invisible and poorly understood. Scientists have struggled to find any solid evidence of dark matter, and the new study could represent a major step forward in that effort.

"This would be the first indirect detection of the annihilation signature of predicted dark matter particles," Wefel, who helped lead the research published in the journal Nature, said in a telephone interview.

Scientists think regular matter amounts to about 5 percent of the universe's mass. The remaining roughly 70 percent is thought to be composed of dark energy, a mysterious presence that may be making the universe expand at an accelerated pace.

The scientists said it is possible that the electrons detected in this research may have been produced by a more conventional source -- perhaps a spinning neutron star called a pulsar that emits a beam of radiation, a medium-sized black hole or the remnants of a bygone supernova.

Scientists think dark matter is distributed somewhat uniformly throughout the universe, with clumps forming around concentrations of regular matter -- for example, galaxies -- due to their gravitational pull.

The scientists think the electrons detected by the instrument may come from one of these clumps located relatively close in astronomical terms to our solar system.

"If our data is to be explained this way, there's got to be some sort of a clump," Wefel said.

The electrons detected by the instrument seem to match theories about what would be produced when dark matter particles collide and destroy each other.

"The annihilation of these exotic particles with each other would produce normal particles such as electrons, positrons, protons and antiprotons that can be observed by scientists," Eun-Suk Seo of the University of Maryland said in a statement.

The NASA-funded instrument was carried to an altitude of about 24 miles above Antarctica using a helium-filled balloon as big as the interior of a large sports stadium.

The research was part of the Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter, or ATIC, collaboration involving scientists in the United States, Germany, Russia and China.
 
Here are a couple excerpts about cosmic rays

April 15, 2000
Q: (L) Okay. I downloaded this article from the internet. It says: "For two days in May, the Solar Wind that blows constantly from the sun virtually disappeared; the most long-lasting and drastic increase ever observed. ...Dropping to a half its normal density, a fraction of its normal speed, the solar wind..."
A: A bit of an unusual event, yes, but the observation equipment has improved, yes?
Q: (T) Just because it was "observed" this time, doesn't mean it isn't something that hasn't happened before.
A: Yes.
Q: (L) It says: "Because of the decrease in energetic electrons from the sun, they were able to flow to the earth in narrow beams know as 'stroa.' Under normal conditions, electrons from the sun are diluted and mixed and redirected in interplanetary space and by earth's magnetic field. One of the things that happened was that earth's magnetosphere swelled to five to six times its normal size. This was observed from satellites. There was no "bow shock" formation in the earth's magnetosphere.
A: Permeation.
Q: (L) Is this anything like what you were talking about in terms of the expansion of the earth's magnetic field as being a more permanent state after transition to 4th density?
A: Temporary glimpse.
Q: (L) When you described it this way, you were talking about everything "opening up." You mentioned that if the earth's rotation were to slow, even a minute bit, that everything "opens up" gravitationally speaking. But, this seems to be connected to solar activity, and no so much the speed of the earth.
A: The solar and earth activities are interconnected.
Q: (L) What effects may have occurred as a result of this event on May 5, 1999?
A: Biogenetic, related to disease pathogens.
Q: (L) In what sense?
A: Transmutation.
Q: (L) Did it enable disease pathogens to mutate so that they become more difficult to deal with, or did they mutate into milder forms?
A: Some both ways.
Q: (L) Is that the main event that occurred during this solar wind lapse?
A: For now, it was so brief.
Q: (L) Can you tell us what was the cause of this disappearance of the solar wind?
A: Rotating cyclical wave of cosmic energies.
Q: (L) What was the source of this wave?
A: Deep space "winds," relating to clusters of antimatter particles. Particulate, as in a mirror reflection of matter.
Q: (L) So, that is the source of this wave. Is this going to happen more frequently in the future, or is this just a fluke?
A: You shall know.
Q: (L) Well, that's what I'm asking you!
A: And we refrain!
Q: (A) I think that the answer is in the earlier question; that this is a standard thing, but with the improvement in observational equipment, it was noticed. It is rotating cyclically, so yes, it happens again and again. We don't know how often...
A: And there are cycles within cycles.

October 3, 1998
Q: (A) Now, the technical question: in the physics news, it is reported that scientists have discovered long range acceleration towards the Sun in the observations of the path of Pioneer 10 which is now 70 AU from Earth, and they cannot explain this. The problem is that there are speculations that this may suggest there is something wrong with the theory of gravity, and that a new theory is necessary. What is the reason for this unusual behavior of Pioneer 10?
A: Wave emittance.
Q: (A) From where?
A: Cosmic energy is composed of particles misidentified.
Q: (L) As what?
A: Not "as," but of.
Q: (L) Of what?
A: Particles are...?
Q: (L) Tachyons?
A: Arkadiusz, please!
Q: (L) Alright, I'll shut up.
A: What do your scientists think about the matter-antimatter matrix?
Q: (A) Well, now you are leading me somewhere else. I asked about the anomalies in the path of Pioneer 10 and now you are talking about matter and anti-matter. The issue is the acceleration of Pioneer 10 TOWARDS the Sun.
A: Towards the Sun... Not from...
Q: (A) Well, I don't see any connection between this problem and this matrix you keep mentioning...
A: Yes, so now we see why one goes: "What?!?"

**

Also this link explains a little more. The first two mentioned articles are both about the same thing taken from different angles by journalistic license. The anomalous cosmic rays were 70 over a 5 week period. While significant, the speculation in the articles is kind of over the top. We don't know that this is normal, or normal cyclically. Some lower energy cosmic rays originate in the solar system. We also don't know everything about anti-matter. We also don't know all the working of supernovae or precursor events to supernova.

As far as signs of the wave, I think the sessions discuss paying attention to events in the human and 3d domain. that doesn't necessarily exclude this as another piece but I think we have bigger signs right in front of our faces rather than LHC's sucking us from out of existence or 70 high energy electrons in the atmosphere over Antarctica with no data to compare it with historically.
 

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