Cosmic Disturbances Shake Astronomer Confidence

When theory and observation don’t match
there is a loss in consumer confidence in science

The disturbances reported below are not so much out there as in here — in academic science departments, where theories are being shaken up by new observations.

Huge nuclear explosion in space is so rare we may never see one again (New Scientist). “Everything makes sense,” Mexican astronomer Dany Page reassures the public, but his proposed gargantuan “hyperburst” inside a star, releasing “more energy in a matter of milliseconds than our sun does in 100,000 years,” would have been “so deep inside the star it was undetectable.” What astronomers observed was a hotter-than-expected type of star that did not conform to theory.

The explosion seems to have taken place inside a strange neutron star located 140,000 light-years from Earth called MAXI J0556–332. Neutron stars are the remnant cores of larger stars that have exploded in supernovas, leaving city-sized objects that contain up to twice the mass of our sun. MAXI J0556–332 was discovered in 2011, paired with another larger star. It has confused astronomers ever since, as it was twice the normal temperature of neutron stars when it was first spotted, though it has since cooled.

Page effectively replaced one “hand wavy” theory with another one. Aren’t astronomers supposed to observe things before making theories? In this case, they are trying not to observe them.

There might be an unusual way to test the idea: by never observing a hyperburst again. This would suggest Page’s idea for their rarity is correct. “You just really hope they don’t find another one now,” says Watts, a somewhat strange wish for a potentially new astronomical discovery.

Nearly 1,000 mysterious strands revealed in Milky Way’s center (Northwestern University, 26 Jan 2022). Strange filaments were discovered near the galactic center in the 1980s. Now, more detailed surveys have revealed ten times more of them, described as “1,000 mysterious strands, inexplicably dangling in space.”

Stretching up to 150 light years long, the one-dimensional strands (or filaments) are found in pairs and clusters, often stacked equally spaced, side by side like strings on a harp. Using observations at radio wavelengths, Northwestern University’s Farhad Yusef-Zadeh discovered the highly organized, magnetic filaments in the early 1980s. The mystifying filaments, he found, comprise cosmic ray electrons gyrating the magnetic field at close to the speed of light. But their origin has remained an unsolved mystery ever since. 

Yusef-Zadeh is piecing together strands of a theory to account for them, but “Every time we answer one question, multiple other questions arise.” His team cannot figure out how electrons are getting accelerated to near the speed of light.

Hundreds of strange filaments twist through the Galaxy’s centre (Nature, 7 Feb 2022). Weird things happen near the center of the Milky Way. Nature comments on the Northwestern University story, saying, “Mysteriously, some of the filaments seem to be clustered together and evenly spaced, like the teeth of a comb.” They don’t seem to be related to exploding supernovae. Maybe the black hole at the center of the Milky Way has something to do with them.

Too many disk galaxies than theory allows (University of Bonn, 4 Feb 2022). The Standard Model of star and galaxy formation predicts that disk galaxies should be more rare than elliptical galaxies. This is because galaxies are supposed to be surrounded by a halo of dark matter that should increase collisions of galaxies, destroying their disk shapes and slowing them down so that disks cannot form again. Astronomers at the University of Bonn find that “observations fit poorly” with those expectations.

“Here we encountered a significant discrepancy between prediction and reality,” Haslbauer says: “There are apparently significantly more flat disk galaxies than can be explained by theory.” However, the resolution of the simulations is limited even on today’s supercomputers. It may therefore be that the number of disk galaxies that would form in the Standard Model of Cosmology has been underestimated. “However, even if we take this effect into account, there remains a serious difference between theory and observation that cannot be remedied“, Haslbauer points out.

Watch the best ever simulation of stars being born in a cosmic cloud (New Scientist). The animation of a collapsing molecular gas cloud, said to be representing “nine million years of stellar evolution” looks very pretty, like something from a Hollywood movie, complete with entrancing music. But the video, made on a computer by Mike Grudić at Carnegie University, is wishful thinking when you read the fine print:

“Star formation is complicated,” says Grudić. “It involves many different processes acting together, and you have to put all of the different ingredients together in order to get a result that actually resembles reality.”

Mike might do better working for Industrial Light & Magic where pretending to resemble reality is not the priority.

Photograph of dark matter. Frame and white background provided for easier detection.

Dark Matter Updates

The search for dark matter keeps coming up empty. Here’s the latest scuttlebutt; some of it may be scuttled, leaving only the third syllable behind.

Distant Galaxies and the true Nature of Dark Matter (SISSA, Italy, 10 Feb 2022). Is there a true nature of dark matter, if it isn’t true? Italian scientists are trying to find out about “dark matter, the elusive element in our universe which has been theorised based on its demonstrable effects on heavenly bodies, but which is yet to be directly proven” despite numerous targeted searches coming up empty. One thing they think is true of its nature; it contradicts the big bang. Galaxy density maps as a function of radius shows that the mass “amazingly expands over time, while the density decreases.” This leads them to propose their hypothesis of  “direct interaction between the elementary particles that make up the dark matter halo and those that make up ordinary matter.” If correct, the consequences would be severe.

We anticipate that this hypothesis is in direct conflict with the current prevailing theory used to describe the universe – known as Lambda-Cold Dark Matter – which posits that particles of cold dark matter are inert and do not interact with any other particle except gravitationally.

Worldwide coordinated search for dark matter (Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, 20 Jan 2022). Another search has come up empty. Cosmologists at Gutenberg U “has published for the first time comprehensive data on the search for dark matter using a worldwide network of optical magnetometers” stationed in Germany, Serbia, Poland, Israel, South Korea, China, Australia, and the United States. The network, called GNOME, has been looking for a signal of dark matter for a month but found nothing. Here’s how they can sound excited at a null result, using a whole paragraph of academic jargon to admit no evidence for dark matter:

In the current study, the research team analyzes data from a one-month continuous operation of GNOME. The result: Statistically significant signals did not appear in the investigated mass range from one femtoelectronvolt (feV) to 100,000 feV. Conversely, this means that the researchers can narrow down the range in which such signals could theoretically be found even further than before. For scenarios that rely on discrete dark matter walls, this is an important result – “even though we have not yet been able to detect such a domain wall with our global ring search,” added Joseph Smiga, another PhD student in Mainz and author of the study.

Keep sending the funding. It must be out there somewhere.

Examining the results of new dark matter searches by the PandaX-4T and ADMX collaborations (Phys.org). Bushwhacking carefully through the thicket of Ingrid Fadelli’s academic jargon, we discover that two more searches failed to find any dark matter, either in WIMP form or in axion form.

Cosmic robbery could explain lack of dark matter in some galaxies (Live Science). Not to support cosmic crime, but some University of California astronomers, who are very accustomed to out-of-control crime in their state, envision galaxies stealing each other’s dark matter. This assumes, of course, that dark matter is a thing. Samantha Mathewson writes, “Large galaxies may steal dark matter from smaller galaxies they nearly collide with, new research suggests.” But then it gets even more weird. Jorge Moreno gave seven of the galaxies in the study names of Cherokee Indians. Never pass up an opportunity to shame colonialism.

“I feel a personal connection to these galaxies,” Moreno, who has indigenous roots, said in the statement, adding that much like these galactic collisions, “many people of indigenous ancestry were stripped of our culture. But our core remains, and we are still thriving.”

UCI scientists discover how galaxies can exist without dark matter (UCI News). Here is UC Irvine’s take on the above story. It’s pretty much the same as Live Science’s story, but it adds an excuse for finding galaxies without dark matter. It was stolen. Those colonial big galaxies took it, like they stripped Cherokees of their culture.

The most successful theories in science are Murphy’s Laws. They explain findings like those above.

• Maier’s Law: If the facts do not conform to the theory, they must be disposed of.
  • Corollary 1: The bigger the theory, the better.
  • Corollary 2: The experiment may be considered a success if no more than 50 percent of the observed measurements must be discarded to obtain a correspondence with the theory.
• Murphy’s Law of Research: Enough research will tend to support your theory.
• Any simple theory will be worded in the most complicated way.
• Eddington’s Theory: The number of different hypotheses erected to explain a given biological phenomenon is inversely proportional to the available knowledge. (This works for cosmology, too.)

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Recommended Resource: The Call of the Cosmos, DVD by Illustra Media.