LOS ALTOS HILLS, Calif., April 16, 2007 (AScribe Newswire) — Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) is difficult to detect from space using an Earth-based telescope because the Earth’s atmosphere scatters/absorbs a very large percentage of such light passing through it.

That is, even if the so-called dark matter of the universe is luminous in the EUV or UV, it still could appear dark through a telescope on the earth’s surface.

Therefore, although astronomers, astrophysicists, and cosmologists have assumed for the past 20 years that the dark matter of the universe is cold, passive, and absolutely dark it actually may be hot, active, and emit EUV or UV light or even soft X-rays.

The possibility of detection of extreme ultraviolet or ultraviolet photons from dark matter progressed in 2006 when Russia announced it will launch an ultraviolet astronomical observatory in 2010 having a 1.7 meter main mirror.

In the announcement, the project manager, Professor Boris Shustov, is quoted as saying: “One should particularly emphasize the observatory’s role in detecting the so-called dark matter of the Universe and unlocking its secrets because such dark matter can only be seen by large ultraviolet telescopes.”

This Russian news came 30 months after Jerome Drexler’s December 2003 astrophysics book had disclosed that his dark matter model comprises relativistic protons that emit synchrotron radiation and that the dark matter of the Local Group galaxy cluster, which includes the Milky Way, is linked to EUV photons. These facts, as clues, eventually led to Drexler’s discovery of the Dual-dark-matter phenomenon.

The announcement by Professor Shustov, Director of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was very encouraging to Drexler that Shustov believed dark matter was luminous in the ultraviolet at a level that could be detected and measured by a 1.7 meter satellite-borne ultraviolet telescope. Drexler valued this information.

After Drexler publicized the Russian announcement, he received emails from a US professor that linked Drexler’s relativistic-proton dark matter model, as a source of EUV synchrotron radiation, to the long-observed EUV radiation from galaxy clusters.

The professor’s emails provided the following significant information: “An extreme ultraviolet and soft X-ray excess has been detected from clusters of galaxies more than ten years ago by EUVE and ROSAT. Today the XMM-Newton satellite continues the research in this exciting field.” And, “In this case the EUV and soft X-ray excess from clusters, which is by now a well established phenomenon, could be used to support your [dark matter] model.” EUV and soft X-ray photon emission from galaxy clusters has been the subject of about 20 scientific papers during the past ten years. None had been linked to dark matter.

Drexler posits that the relativistic-proton dark matter is probably the leading candidate for such a source of EUV and soft X-ray photon emission from galaxy clusters since its synchrotron radiation provides a very plausible explanation for the observed phenomena.

Dark matter’s relativistic protons in a cluster of galaxies are a much more likely source of EUV or soft X-ray synchrotron radiation than dark matter’s relativistic protons in the halo of a spiral galaxy, like the Milky Way. There are three reasons for this:

A proton’s synchrotron radiation power is proportional to the square of its energy, the wavelength of the peak radiation power is inversely proportional to the square of the protons’ energy, and the energies of the dark matter protons in the Local Group galaxy cluster are estimated at 30 times greater than the proton energies in the Milky Way’s halo.

Thus, dark matter protons in the Local Group galaxy cluster should radiate synchrotron radiation power about 900 times higher, at a wavelength 900 times smaller, than from protons in the Milky Way’s dark matter halo.

Calculations indicate that the synchrotron radiation power from the Milky Way’s dark matter halo should have a broad peak in the infrared that includes the wavelength of 5 microns and that radiation power from the Local Group galaxy cluster should have an EUV or soft X-ray broad peak that includes the wavelength of 5.5 nanometers.

Drexler’s Dual-dark-matter phenomenon could be tested by NASA in 2008 when the Hubble telescope’s EUV/UV sensitivity is increased by a factor of 30. The detection of EUV or soft X-rays from the dark matter in the Local Group galaxy cluster plus their absence from the Milky Way’s halo could confirm Drexler’s Dual-dark-matter discovery.

Drexler authored “Comprehending and Decoding the Cosmos,” in 2006, and “How Dark Matter Created Dark Energy And The Sun,”” in 2003.

Jerome Drexler is a former NJIT Research Professor in physics at New Jersey Institute of Technology, founder, former Chairman and chief scientist of LaserCard Corp. (Nasdaq: LCRD), and former Member of the Technical Staff of Bell Laboratories. He has been granted 76 U.S. patents, honorary Doctor of Science degrees from NJIT and Upsala (Uppsala)College, a degree of Honorary Fellow of the Technion, an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship at Stanford University, a three-year Bell Labs graduate study fellowship, the 1990 “Inventor of the Year Award” for Silicon Valley, recognition as the inventor of the well- known “Laser Optical Storage System,” and membership on the NJIT Board of Overseers.