Researchers have created the most accurate map of dark matter in our universe. The team studied over 26 million galaxies. The map will help you understand what dark matter is made of and learn more about another mysterious phenomenon called dark energy. The results were published by the Dark Energy Consortium.
According to Professor Ofer Lahav of University College London and chairman of the consortium's board, the map provides a fresh perspective on how the universe works.
“Dark energy and dark matter represent perhaps one of the greatest scientific mysteries in the world of science. This is a huge shock for the scientific world. And, we still don't know what it is,”he says.
For more than 80 years, scientists have suspected that there is more material in the universe than we observe. The movement of stars and galaxies indicates that the universe is made up of invisible particles called dark matter.
In 1998, two teams of astronomers discovered that the expansion of the universe was accelerating, rather than slowing down, as the theory suggested. Physicists have suggested that the acceleration is due to what is called dark energy.
Since then, it has been proven that dark energy and dark matter together make up 96% of the universe. The challenge was to find a way to study all these invisible phenomena in detail.
Dark matter research began in 2004. It was attended by 400 scientists from 26 institutions in 7 countries. Scientists have photographed 26 million galaxies using the Blanco Telescope in Chile. To do this, the scientific team used the most sensitive cameras in history: a 570-megapixel camera is able to capture the light of galaxies that are 8 billion light-years away.
By studying how light is distorted by dark matter, scientists were able to calculate its distribution. And by observing how this distribution changes over time, researchers can calculate how dark matter affects it.
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The team also made inferences about volumes of dark energy and dark matter based on the density and location of galaxies.
The results support previous research, which indicated that the universe is composed of 4% ordinary matter, 26% dark matter, and 70% dark energy.
It is hoped that a detailed study of the map will tell us what dark matter and dark energy are, and thus complement the theory of physics.
The published data is the result of an entire year of observations. Researchers plan to collect information for another four years on a larger area of the sky. Professor Lahav says there are many interesting things to come: “Once we have completed a full survey of 300 million galaxies and thousands of supernovae, we can provide input to the new Einstein, who will tell us what it all means - why the universe is the way it is now. ?"
