[ad_1]
The hunt for dark matter remains one of the greatest puzzles in the Universe, as the mysterious substance cannot be seen or interacted with in any meaningful way. Astronomers, however, believe there is so much stuff that accounts for around 27% of the Universe. About 85% of all matter in the Universe is believed to be dark, while all that we can touch and see amounts to less than 5%.
Since dark matter neither emits nor reflects light, nor does it interact with any form of electromagnetic radiation, efforts to detect it may seem futile.
But astronomers can infer its presence in rotating galaxies based on their movements.
In short, galaxies are spinning at dizzying speeds that should see them fall apart.
Instead, an invisible substance appears to glue them together and give them more mass and gravity than the sum of what we can see.
READ MORE: “No one on Earth is safe” Scientists warning about “rogue” black holes
Galaxies also appear to be surrounded by a so-called dark matter halo, a region of space surrounding a galactic disk where dark matter aggregates.
A team of astronomers have now found a way to detect these dark matter halos using a technique they believe is 10 times better than anything devised so far.
Researchers from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia have proposed a way to measure the severity of these dark matter halos in the Royal Astronomical Society Monthly Notices.
Although the technique does not detect dark matter directly, it can observe the effects that dark matter has on the surrounding space.
Associate Professor Edward Taylor, who was involved in the study, said, “Dark matter slightly distorts the image of anything behind it.
“The effect is a bit like reading a newspaper through the base of a wine glass.”
Astronomers already use gravitational lensing lenses to find dark matter clusters in space.
The Swinburne researchers have now combined the effect with observations of a rotating galaxy for much more precise measurements.
They used the 2.3m telescope from the Australian National University in Australia to monitor the rotation of galaxies with gravitational lenses.
Because they know how a galaxy should behave, based on its contents, they know what the galaxy should be like.
Mr. Gurri said: “By measuring how distorted the real images of the galaxy are, then we can figure out how much dark matter it would take to explain what we see.”
He added: “With our new way of seeing dark matter, we hope to have a clearer picture of where dark matter is and what role it plays in how galaxies form.”
And Professor Taylor said: “We have shown that we can make a real contribution to these global efforts with a relatively small telescope built in the 1980s, simply by thinking about the problem in a different way.”
[ad_2]
Source link
