Speaker
Description
The total mass and distribution of dark matter within the Solar system are poorly known, albeit constraints from measurements of planetary orbits exist. We have discovered, however, that different sorts of determinations of the Sun’s gravitational quadrupole moment can combine to yield new and highly sensitive constraints on the mass distribution within Mercury’s orbit. These outcomes provide evidence for a non-luminous disk coplanar with Mercury’s orbit, and we develop how we can use these findings to limit the mass of a dark disk, ring, or halo in the immediate vicinity of the Sun. The mass estimates associated with known matter, although uncertain, point to a prominent dark-matter contribution. and we note how continuing observational studies of the inner solar system can not only refine these constraints but also help to identify and to assess the mass of its dark-matter component.
