New simulations suggest dark matter may be lighting up our galaxy’s core

For over a decade, astronomers have puzzled over a strange gamma-ray glow at the heart of our galaxy. Detected in 2008 by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, the light has divided scientists, with some attributing it to pulsars, the remnants of dying stars, and others to the annihilation of dark matter particles.

As CNN reports, fresh simulations from supercomputers now lend weight to the dark matter explanation. The study, led by Joseph Silk, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University, was published in Physical Review Letters.

Using models that better reflect how the Milky Way formed, Silk’s team found that dark matter near the galactic centre could be “squashed” and be more egg-shaped than spherical, matching the observed bulge of the gamma-ray glow.

This marks a key shift. Previous models assumed dark matter would produce a spherical light pattern, favouring the pulsar theory instead. Silk believes the odds are now “50 per cent” that the glow stems from dark matter.

Dark matter — a form of invisible mass first theorised by Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky and confirmed indirectly in the 1970s by Vera Rubin and W Kent Ford — makes up most of the universe’s matter.

Its most likely constituent, according to Silk, remains the WIMP (Weakly Interacting Massive Particle). If two WIMPs collide, they could emit gamma rays, potentially explaining the signal seen by Fermi.

As highlighted by CNN, upcoming observations from the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory in Chile and Spain, set to begin in 2027, could finally resolve the mystery.

Should these instruments confirm dark matter as the source, it would mark one of the most profound discoveries in modern physics.