Researchers are using data from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu to investigate the possibility of a fifth fundamental force in the universe. This exciting discovery could have far-reaching implications for our understanding of the Standard Model of physics and the nature of dark matter.
Following Astronomical Hints: Beyond Just Asteroid Tracking
Practically, the orbits of cosmic bodies like asteroids can act as veritable treasure troves of new physics. Upon OSIRIS-REx’s arrival back on Earth with a bottle of dust and rocks from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu in 2023, the mission had provided data that suggested an anomaly consistent with a fifth fundamental force.
Unfortunately however, they have managed to establish constraints on a potential fifth force as well as the role of a possible mediating particle in the form of an ultralight boson by analyzing the precise tracking data of Bennu. It is an example of studying the physics of orbits and how deviations can often indicate answers to puzzles in the underlying laws acting in the cosmos.
Pushing the Boundaries of the Standard Model: The Search for a Fifth Force
The Standard Model, which explains three of the four fundamental forces of nature, has been the bedrock of our understanding of how the universe works for a long while. Nonetheless, while astronomers investigate the ultimate depths of the dark cosmos –it is an interesting point to ponder–does a fifth fundamental force loom hidden by shrouds in our mysterious Universe?
With the tracking data from the OSIRIS REx mission, the research team calculated some of the most stringent limits on Yukawa-type fifth forces ever. The discovery opens up the possibility of asteroid tracking becoming a useful tool in the quest for ultralight bosons, dark matter and beyond-the-Standard Model extensions. As lead author Yu-Dai Tsai says “How we interpret the data from tracking Bennu could give new insights into the foundational physics of our universe, or it might let us detect a deviation from gravity — a step towards identifying dark matter.
Exploring the secrets of Darkish Matter: A hyperlink to a Fifth Force
The pursuit of a fifth fundamental force is related to the quest to understand what exactly dark matter — a mysterious substance that permeates the cosmos and accounts for at least some 27% of the mass-energy content in the observable universe — actually is. Though dark matter is estimated to represent some 85% of all the material in our universe, we have not a clue as to which particles or forces constitute this elusive constituent.
Fourth, the hypothetical detection of a new mediating particle like an ultralight boson that mediates with the fifth force would help us understanding the nature of dark matter. “These results highlight the possibility of using asteroid-tracking measurements as a useful approach in searching for ultralight bosons, dark matter and several well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model,” says Sunny Vagnozzi, an assistant professor at the University of Trento in Italy and co-author on the paper. The researchers are using their results to expand large stone observations with further exploration possibilities including an Apophis asteroid path within 20,000 miles on Earth come 2029.
