China's Dark Matter Probe Detects Tantalizing Signal (sciencemag.org)

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

China's Dark Matter Probe Detects Tantalizing Signal (sciencemag.org)

Posted by BeauHD on Friday December 1, 2017 @07:00PM from the mysterious-material dept.

hackingbear shares a report from Science Magazine: Results reported by a China-led space science mission provide a tantalizing hint -- but not firm evidence -- for dark matter. In its first 530 days of scientific observations, China's Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) detected 1.5 million cosmic ray electrons and positrons above a certain energy threshold. When researchers plot of the number of particles against their energy, they saw hints of an anomalous break in the curve. Now, DAMPE has confirmed that deviation. "It may be evidence of dark matter," but the break in the curve "may be from some other cosmic ray source," says astrophysicist Chang Jin, who leads the collaboration at the Chinese Academy of Science's Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing. DAMPE's life span will be extended to 5 years given the excellent conditions of this Chinese spacecraft, then it can record over 10 billion cosmic events, allowing researchers to confirm if it is indeed dark matter. Perhaps more significantly, the first observational data produced by China's first mission dedicated to astrophysics shows that the country is set to become a force in space science, says David Spergel, an astrophysicist at Princeton University. China is now "making significant contributions to astrophysics and space science," he says. The DAMPE results appear online in the journal Nature.

37 comments

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Newsflash! by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-01 19:06 · Score: -1

Chinks fake data.
1. Re: Newsflash! by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-01 19:08 · Score: -1
  
  So do niiggers.
2. Re:Newsflash! by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-02 00:35 · Score: -1
  
  so do Trump supporters.
3. Re: Newsflash! by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-02 01:54 · Score: -1
  
  When you insert a Tantalizing Signal Probe way up your bunghole, I suppose it would detect Dark Matter.
Goa Tse Signal by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-01 19:08 · Score: 0, Troll

This was one of the Gaussian Triplets known as Goa Tse. We have seen it before and believe it to be emanating from a large, nearby black hole.
1. Re:Goa Tse Signal by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-01 19:16 · Score: 0
  
  Nice. I knew running that SETI app on all those Win9x boxen was a mistake.
2. Re:Goa Tse Signal by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-01 19:24 · Score: 0
  
  Wow, great read.
Statistical significance? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-01 19:13 · Score: 0

I dont have access to the Nature article and the linked article doesnt mention the sigma level for the signal they see. Anyone know how significant this anomaly is?
1. Re:Statistical significance? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-01 19:51 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  More details here:
  http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/First_finding_of_Chinas_DAMPE_may_shed_light_on_dark_matter_research_999.html
  "DAMPE has directly detected a spectral break at ~0.9 TeV, with the spectral index changing from ~3.1 to ~3.9."
  This is pretty energetic stuff for Electrons and Positrons. I don't think that they have released anything significant about the Photons or heavier Nuclei yet.
  Can I make a little joke about China's Purple Mountain's Majesties now?
  Oh, I thought not... you folks are enough to DAMPEn anything.
2. Re:Statistical significance? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-01 20:12 · Score: 0
  
  http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/cn_eu/2017-11/30/content_35132952.htm
  Hope this helps
3. Re:Statistical significance? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-01 20:22 · Score: 0
  
  >Can I make a little joke about China's Purple Mountain's Majesties now?
  No. I don't want a dampe Chinese probe in my dark space.
4. Re:Statistical significance? by SpaceIsBig · 2017-12-02 05:32 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Here's the open access article on arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.109... I don't think they determined the statistical significance
51 sellouts in the senate. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-01 19:54 · Score: -1

Cowards.
The Math? by MatthiasF · 2017-12-01 20:00 · Score: 1

By my calculations from the numbers in the article, it's processing around 1 million cosmic ray strikes a year.

So, how are they going to get to 10 billion in five years?
1. Re:The Math? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-01 20:22 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  No, the 1.5M was strikes ABOVE THE THRESHOLD, it doesn't say the total collected then.
2. Re:The Math? by PolygamousRanchKid+ · 2017-12-01 20:43 · Score: 1
  
  So, how are they going to get to 10 billion in five years?
  The critter runs on Bitcoins, so the value of the "strikes" will be exponentially increasing over the next years.
  Forever.
  
  --
  Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Good job China by Dorianny · 2017-12-01 20:06 · Score: 4, Interesting

Well this is exciting. The results considerably narrows the parameter space for nearby astronomical sources that can account for the PAMELA positron anomaly. It also puts new constrains on theoretical models for proposed dark-matter candidates. Of course it is still entirely possible that all that comes out of this is the discovery of a nearby pulsar
1. Re:Good job China by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-01 21:28 · Score: -1
  
  It's also entirely possible that the data was entirely faked. Because China.
2. Re:Good job China by gtall · 2017-12-02 00:09 · Score: 2
  
  Under the assumption the research is correct.
3. Re:Good job China by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-02 00:43 · Score: 0
  
  like merkins have never faked data either - like because profit.
4. Re:Good job China by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-02 00:44 · Score: 0
  
  Sure, other country's people never faked anything...
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
5. Re:Good job China by Bradac_55 · 2017-12-02 11:12 · Score: 1
  
  +1 this after the article came out about how most of China's "science" claims are false, non-fact checked hype.
DAMPE by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-01 20:42 · Score: 0

Forget dark matter, the REAL importance of DAMPE is to give you the hookshot.
Tanatalizing signal! is it the Typical Signal ? by 140Mandak262Jamuna · 2017-12-02 01:00 · Score: 3, Interesting

During the cold war the Swedish navy had underwater listening posts that detected suspicious signals that could be Russian subs. These Swedish subs kept trying to catch the Red Subs red handed, but to no avail. They kept following the "typical signal" that sounded like bcaon being fried in a skillet noise.
Eventually, once biologists came on board to listen, they found the source of the signals.
Farting Fish Fingered said the Guardian.

--
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
1. Re:Tanatalizing signal! is it the Typical Signal ? by DNS-and-BIND · 2017-12-02 01:40 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Eventually, the Communists caught themselves. A Whiskey-class submarine stuck itself on a rock, well within Swedish territorial waters. The incident was known as "Whiskey on the rocks". Instead of taking a strong stand, the Swedes allowed the submarine to go freely.
  
  --
  Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
And, like every other "discovery" out of China... by Chas · 2017-12-02 01:45 · Score: 1

It'll turn out to be a hoax.

--

Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
scale wrong? by pz · 2017-12-02 02:22 · Score: 0

I read the linked article that had not much more detail than the summary, unfortunately.
But the projected count of events seems wrong. The reported data were collected over 530 days it is said. That's about 1-1/2 years, and they observed 1.5 million events, or about 1 million per year. They now want to extend the lifetime of the probe to 5 years, total. Shouldn't that be about 5 million events, give-or-take? We have a discrepancy of 3 orders of magnitude from the projected total count of 10 billion.
So, where does that projection come from, or is this a case of a reporting mistake ("billion" substituted for "million") followed by a basic fact-checking failure? British vs American English combined with incomplete search-and-replace? Something else?
I mean, it's a space probe. Up in space. It's not like you can swap out the detector for a new one with 1000-fold better capture efficiency.

--

Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
1. Re:scale wrong? by 110010001000 · 2017-12-02 02:34 · Score: 1
  
  According to Space Nutters you can just build factories in space and easily build and swap out components. You just lack vision.
2. Re:scale wrong? by crimson+tsunami · 2017-12-02 03:37 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  or is this a case of a reporting mistake
  No it is a case of not reading the fucking article.
  
  In its first 530 days of scientific observations, DAMPE detected 1.5 million cosmic ray electrons and positrons above a certain energy threshold.
Dark matter? Fake Gravity. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-02 03:25 · Score: -1

It turns out gravity doesn't model the movement of the heavens, so they cover for their lie by claiming there 'must' be dark matter and dark energy that can't be seen. Space is fake.
With a few careful observations, you can begin to understand that the
heliocentric model is a lie, and you live on a flat plane.
Solar Eclipse: https://vimeo.com/230976895
Corona not shaped in a spherical configuration; orients toward Earth. Corona lines can be observed to move faster than the speed of light. Light of the corona can be observed on the back of the moon. Light of the chromosphere can be observed on the back of the moon. Light of protuberences can be observed on the back of the moon. Sun and Moon same size and near. Wiki: Allais Effect
Lunar Eclipse: https://vimeo.com/92378881
Irregular shadow shape, progression. Shadow is black, then changes color to reddish: Shadows don't change color. Moon glow of uneclipsed portion increases as shadow becomes reddish, detail lost. Moon has no rotation(see Nikola Tesla): we always see the same face. Moon emits own light. Craters not from impacts: Too round.
No model of the lunar eclipse correctly captures it:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/10/06/why-does-the-moon-turn-red-during-a-lunar-eclipse/
https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/usa/scottsdale?iso=20140415
software:Stellarium 0.16.1 Next lunar eclipse: January 30/31, 2018 North America
The Earth is flat. Eclipses prove it. Try getting a gyroscope to show you the spinning of Earth.
1. Re: Dark matter? Fake Gravity. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-02 06:29 · Score: 0
  
  . Try getting a gyroscope to show you the spinning of Earth
  I've judged high school science fairs that had ones built by students. Most science museums and university physics departments have a gyroscope or a Foucault pendulum you can watch rotate throughout the day. These also tend to be built by students (or a single lecture-dem employee), as they are not hard to make and you could easily do so yourself.
  As far as dark matter being some grand conspiracy to hide broken gravity, multiple alternative gravity research groups are still getting funding, still publishing papers, and still well received by the rest of the community. Conspiracy theorist love talking about how some specific idea can make you a pariah, when how you're judged by the science community is much more about the diligence of your research and a bit about just being polite/humble/tactful when discussing one's work.
2. Re: Dark matter? Fake Gravity. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-02 07:32 · Score: 0
  
  A good science fair project would be to have somebody explain why flights from Argentina to Australia don't fly over Antarctica. Whenever I ask a ball-Earther they usually insist there's a simple reason but start stuttering and gesticulating disjointedly when I ask for details.
3. Re: Dark matter? Fake Gravity. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-02 08:16 · Score: 0
  
  Are you moving the goal posts because you accept how easy it is to build the gyroscope you previously said otherwise about?
  And why would a flight from Sydney to Santiago or Buenos Aires go out of their way to go to Antarctica when the shortest path is further north, both with and without jets stream's help? But if you want to be a tourist and pay more for a sight seeing flight over Antarctica, they exist. Far more commonly, you can take a cruise or sailboat from Australia to South America to see Antarctica.
4. Re: Dark matter? Fake Gravity. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-02 14:30 · Score: 0
  
  Whether or not you believe the earth is round, routes taken by specific flights also involved other issues like... international treaties, safety, and orders from corporate headquarters.
Reliable source? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-02 05:00 · Score: 0

Can any of their data be trusted after the doctoring of the moon photography?
Re: And, like every other "discovery" out of China by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-02 07:16 · Score: 0

Did China correct for the effect of North Korea's native unicorn population? They probably emit similar signals.
Don't forget the fakes by AutodidactLabrat · 2017-12-02 09:53 · Score: 1

Turns out China excels at producing faked science.
Beware, demand verification, and even then check to make sure the "Peers" aren't the same people who wrote the paper.