The ESA space observatory Integral had observed gamma-rays from the center of the galaxy, which indicated the presence of positrons distributed in a way that couldn’t quite be explained with known phenomenon. Hence some physicists speculated that the positrons may have been the result of dark matter annihilation. Not only did the distribution of positrons within our galaxy turn out to be lopsided, arguing against dark matter annihilation as the source, but it has now been explained how supernovae could be responsible for the distribution of positrons.
Some had thought that supernovae could not be the source of most of the positrons because it was assumed that they would all annihilate very close to their origin, which would not match the observed distribution of positrons. But it turns out that the positrons from supernovae, which are the result of the decay of heavy elements from the stellar explosion, travel nearly at the speed of light and can travel for thousands of light-years before slowing down and annihilating with an electron. By considering how electrons move in galactic magnetic fields, they were able to model how positrons would travel before being annihilated, and the results seem to be consistent with the Integral observations.
This deals a blow to the hypothesis that dark matter annihilation may be responsible for the positron distribution. I wonder if the same implication can be inferred for the PAMELA observations?