A team of researchers led by Yu-Dai Tsai from the Los Alamos National Laboratory used data from the NASA OSIRIS-REx mission to investigate a possible fifth fundamental force in the universe. The team analyzed the tracking data of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, which was returned to Earth in 2023.
According to the researchers, anomalies in the trajectory of celestial objects can reveal new physics and potentially lead to discoveries. By studying the tracking data of Bennu, the team found that it could constrain or establish limits on a possible fifth force, also known as a Yukawa-type fifth force.
The presence of such a force would require the existence of an ultralight boson, which is a hypothetical particle thought to mediate this new force. The researchers believe that studying asteroid tracking data can be a valuable tool in searching for ultralight bosons and dark matter, two concepts that are still not well understood.
The team’s analysis also found constraints on the role of an ultralight boson in a possible fifth force. This discovery has implications for our understanding of the Standard Model of physics, gravity, and dark matter.
The researchers plan to build on their work with the tracking of another near-Earth asteroid, Apophis, which will pass close to Earth in 2029. By studying this asteroid’s trajectory and its interaction with Earth’s gravity, scientists may be able to gain new insights into a possible fifth force and the nature of dark matter.
This study highlights the potential for space-based tracking data to shed light on some of the universe’s biggest mysteries, including dark matter and a potential fifth force.
Source: https://phys.org/news/2024-10-earth-asteroid-probe-universe.html