H/T Mark Mighell So where are the WIMPs? Direct vs. Indirect Detection The dark matter distribution in our galaxy is a topic of considerable debate, largely because of the dearth of observational evidence. Under some standard assumptions, the WIMPs form a smooth halo, roughly spherical in shape, that encompasses and extends far beyond the familiar spiral-armed disk of stars and gas (Figure 1).3 The Sun and Earth move through the dark matter halo as they orbit the center of the galaxy once every 240 hundred million years. web.mit.edu/physics/news/physicsatmit/fall2009.html Winds of Change in the Hunt for Dark Matter 38 Has dark matter been discovered yet? Conflicting observations over the past year are currently a hot topic in particle physics and astrophysics. The MIT Laboratory for Nuclear Science dark matter group has a new and unambiguous experimental technique to address this question of searching for the dark matter wind. BY JOCELYN MONROE AND JAMES BATTAT web.mit.edu/physics/news/physicsatmit/physicsatmit_09_windsofchange_monroebattat.pdf
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 06:49:00 +0000