Seeing the light: The HST WFPC2 image of gravitational lensing in the galaxy cluster Abell 2218, indicating the presence of large amount of dark matter.

Credit: Andrew Fruchter at STScI

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“Most models assume [dark matter] doesn’t interact because that’s the simplest assumption. Other weakly interacting particles we know of, such as neutrinos, don’t interact strongly with themselves,” said Croom.

If dark matter did strongly self-interact within the galactic core it would cause a ‘cooling catastrophe’ where radiation cools down and collapses very quickly.

“It’s an interesting idea, [but] whether it bears any relationship to reality only time will tell,” Croom said. “What it really points to is the fundamental need to understand what dark matter particles are.”

The results will be published in the British journal, the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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