Near-Earth Asteroids May ‘Unlock’ the Mystery of the Universe’s Fifth Force

A study published in the scientific journal Communications Physics, conducted by researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, suggests that: Near-Earth Asteroids May Help Solve One of the Fundamental Mysteries of the Universe: The Fifth Estate.

The scientists used data collected by the OSIRIS-REx mission from the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The information collected by the NASA mission was applied to models that expanded the Standard Model of Physics.

With this, researchers were able to use astrometric, optical and radar data to understand the orbit of the asteroid Bennu, known for its proximity to Earth and discovered in 1999. The idea is that anomalies detected by nearby asteroids could help solve the mystery.

The results suggest that tracking asteroids could also be important in the search for ultralight bosons, dark matter and other little-known information, according to Professor Sunny Vagnozzi, one of the study’s authors and a researcher at the University of Trento in Italy. universe.

“Interpreting the data we see from Bennu’s pursuit has the potential to increase our understanding of the theoretical foundations of the universe and potentially reshape our Standard Model understanding of physics, gravity and dark matter. The orbits of objects often present anomalies that can be useful in discovering new physics.“, said the paper’s editor-in-chief, Yu-Dai Tsai, in an official statement.

Asteroids and the fifth force of the universe

The four fundamental forces of the universe are: gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear force, and weak nuclear force. However, scientists suggest that there may be a fifth force in the universe that can help solve events that science has not yet been able to explain. For example, The hypothesis suggests that this force may be related to dark matter or dark energy, two other great mysteries.

In the study, researchers used orbital data and modeling from asteroid Bennu. to establish constraints on a possible fifth force and the role of ultralight bosons in this phenomenon. The presence of a boson-like particle in a near-Earth asteroid can be easily detected; Therefore, it is very important to continue studying celestial objects close to the planet.

In the future, scientists plan to study the asteroid Apophis, which will pass near the Earth in 2029. The goal is to use NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX probe to collect data. The group is also analyzing the use of quantum technologies and other space missions.

“Testing the possible existence of fifth forces is important because the ultralight bosons that would mediate these forces are predicted to exist in several well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model. Recent studies have shown asteroids to be promising probes, but applications to real data have been lacking so far. Here , we use the OSIRIS-REx mission and ground tracking data of the asteroid Bennu to derive constraints on the fifth forces,” he explains in the study’s introduction.

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