Some solar flares may be caused by dark matter

August 22, 2008

A powerful X-ray flare (lower centre) erupted from the Sun on 28 October 2003 (Image: NASA/ESA)

Some solar flares may be caused by dark matter particles called axions spewing out from the centre of the Sun, new calculations suggest.

Solar flares are sudden changes in the Sun’s brightness thought to be caused when twisted magnetic fields on the Sun snap and reconnect explosively.

But they could also be caused by dark matter, the mysterious entity that makes up most of the universe’s mass – if it is made up of theoretical particles called axions.

Axionswere proposed in the 1970s to help explain the mystery of why our universe is made mostly of matter and not antimatter. They should be produced deep inside the Sun and should interact with some of the Sun’s magnetic fields as they stream outwards, producing flares that are bright at X-ray wavelengths.

Physicists had predicted that these axion-generated flares would have certain traits – the flares’ X-ray photons were expected to travel radially outwards from the Sun, for example. But observations showed they came out at all angles.

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Posted in Science and Technology, Space Exploration