The largest dark matter map in the universe to date has been published.
Dark matter, which cannot be observed from Earth, probably makes up about 80% of the matter in the universe.
A team of scientists from the international Dark Energy Survey (DES) created a new map, covering a quarter of the sky in the southern hemisphere.
Depth field image of one of the analyzed regions of space to draw a dark matter map
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They do so by studying how light from distant galaxies is distorted on its way to Earth.
The presence of dark matter will bend its rays towards us.
Artificial intelligence analyzes data to create maps.
About 100 million galaxies were observed for the project. According to NASA, there are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way alone.
The DES team was led by researchers from University College London.
Dr. Niall Jeffrey of UCL’s Department of Physics and Astronomy is the lead author of the project.
He said, “Most of the matter in the universe is dark matter. It was magical to see this huge and hidden structure in most of the night sky.
“This structure was revealed through the distorted shape of hundreds of millions of distant galaxies with photos from the Dark Energy Camera in Chile.
“On our map, which mostly shows dark matter, we see a pattern similar to visible matter alone, a network-like structure with clumps of dense matter separated by large empty cavities.
“Observing these cosmic structures can help us answer fundamental questions about the universe.”
The existence of dark matter can be inferred from the way galaxies move – they stick together and those in clusters move faster than expected.
Co-author Professor Ofer Lahav, head of the UK DES consortium and member of the UCL physics and astronomy team, said: “The visible galaxy formed in the densest region of dark matter.
“When we look at the night sky, we see the glow of the galaxy, but not the dark matter around it, like when we see the light of a city at night.
–The area in purple is a map of dark matter with a plot overlaid on the image of the Milky Way
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“By calculating how gravity distorts light, a technique known as gravitational lensing, we get an overall picture of both visible and invisible matter.
“This brings us closer to understanding what the universe was made of and how it evolved.
“It also shows the power of artificial intelligence to analyze one of the largest data sets in astronomy.”
Research by DES has supported standard cosmological models of how the universe works.
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