New form of dark matter could solve decades-old Milky Way mystery

Susan Stolovy (SSC/Caltech) et al., NASA SPitzer/IRAC

Astronomers have long been puzzled by two strange phenomena at the heart of our galaxy. First, the gas in the central molecular zone (CMZ), a dense and chaotic region near the Milky Way’s core, appears to be ionised (meaning it is electrically charged because it has lost electrons) at a surprisingly high rate.

Second, telescopes have detected a mysterious glow of gamma rays with an energy of 511 kilo-electronvolts (keV) (which corresponds to the energy of an electron at rest).