Nexus - 1705 - New Times Magazine-pages

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ZISCIENCE|2 DOES "MIRROR MATTER" REALLY EXIST? by Rod Hamon © 2010 redshifts <0.04 and identified andedness. The new study uses 5,158 with redshifts <0.085 and obtains very similar results to the irst..."' He points out, however, that he preference for left-handed galaxies is more pronounced in the northern sector of the sky. No one seems able o explain this. But do we also see this same left- andedness at the subatomic level? On the contrary, the concept of symmetry at this level has always been a cherished feature among physicists. Everything seems particularly well organised with an even distribution of right- and left- handed particles. particle based on the premise that every right-handed particle must have a left-handed equivalent. However, this long-held concept was hit a crushing blow when physicists discovered an inconsistency: neutrinos only ever exist with left-handed spin. Neutrinos are similar to electrons, with one crucial difference: neutrinos do not carry electric charge, therefore electromagnetic forces do not affect them. This lack of symmetry in neutrinos deeply concerned physicists, and so a search for the missing particle began in earnest. The hunt proved fruitless, and researchers wondered if there could be another explanation. Neutrinos travel at almost the speed of light, with many quadrillions of them passing through our bodies every second. hen scientists put forward the \ \ } theory of a completely new type of matter to explain why over 85 per cent of the Universe appears to be missing, it was dismissed as bizarre in the extreme. Their theory proposed the existence of "mirror matter"—a strange, undetected but potentially significant component of the Cosmos. Now there is compelling evidence that "mirror matter" really does exist. A longstanding puzzle in biochemistry is the tendency for life's molecules to prefer left-handedness. Alanine amino acid, for example, can be artificially synthesised in the aboratory as either left- or right- anded. Strangely, though, in living hings this molecule exists only in the eft-handed orientation. Even stranger than this is that if a right- anded amino acid enters a living organism, it is rejected and destroyed. We could simply dismiss this as an oddity of life on Earth, but, when we ook beyond our planet into space, we see this same preference for left- andedness even in far-away galaxies. In his research paper, Professor Michael J. Longo of the University of Michigan reports: "In this article | extend an earlier study of spiral galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to investigate whether the universe has an_ overall handedness. A preference for spiral galaxies in one sector of the sky to be left-handed or right-handed spirals would indicate a parity-violating asymmetry in the overall universe and a preferred axis. The previous study used 2,616 spiral galaxies with an Left-handed Neutrinos So confident have scientists been about this that they have even predicted the existence of a new MSI: The Whirlpool Galaxy in Dust and Stars. Credit: N. Scoville (Caltech), T. Rector (U. Alaska, NOAO) et al., Hubble Heritage Team, NASA NEXUS ¢ 49 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2010 www.nexusmagazine.com