https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-024-05174-3
Regular Article
Is asteroid 33 Polyhymnia a dark matter (DM) degenerate object?
1
Department of Physics and Electronics, Christ University, Hosur Road, 560029, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
2
Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Koramangala, 560057, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
3
Department of Physics, St Claret Pre-University College, Jalahalli, 560013, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
c
kenath.arun@christuniversity.in
Received:
9
January
2024
Accepted:
9
April
2024
Published online:
25
June
2024
Polyhymnia (33 Polyhymnia) is a main belt asteroid in our solar system with a diameter around 54 km. The density of asteroid 33 Polyhymnia, located in the main asteroid belt, is calculated to be 75 g/cc. Researchers have speculated the possibility that Polyhymnia could be composed of high-density superheavy elements near atomic number 164. Here, we propose that Polyhymnia could be an asteroid composed of degenerate dark matter (DM) and there could be many such asteroids in our solar system. (This is following our earlier work suggesting that Planet Nine could be such an object.)
All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Conceptualization: C. Sivaram; Formal analysis and investigation: O. V. Kiren; Writing - original draft preparation: O. V. Kiren, Arun Kenath; Writing - review and editing: C. Sivaram; Arun Kenath.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2024. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
