Many scientists believe there’s a “dark matter hurricane” hurdling towards Earth. However, theres a good chance it’s blowing through us already.
But not to worry— it will definitely not going to kill us. In reality, it’s just normal dark matter with especially good ‘branding’. But, it really is headed (to a point) our way!
Here’s what is happening: In 2017, astronomers found a stretched-out line of stars that were passing through our solar system’s general vicinity of the Milky Way Galaxy. Scientists who found it named the group the “S1 stream.” They identified it as the nearest of several stellar streams moving through our galaxy. Stars like these form when ourMilky Way ‘eats up’ up a dwarf galaxy. This stretches out the smaller object in the process. A new paper published Nov. 7 in the journal Physical Review D, some researchers argue that S1 might be carrying with it a massive load of dark matter that came from the original dwarf galaxy. They gave that baggage the cool name of “dark matter hurricane.” It sounds worse than it really is.
It’s actually fun to think about. A massive dense cloud of dark matter from a dead galaxy from long long ago blasting invisibly through our corner of the galaxy as it follows the remaining stars on their own doomed parade.
