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Scientists around the world are trying to detect dark matter.
Scientists currently estimate that up to 85% of the mass in the universe is invisible. This “dark matter” cannot be observed directly because it does not interact with light in the same way as ordinary matter, from which stars, planets and life on Earth are made. A small team of British astronomers have found a new way to see dark matter, and it should be ten times more accurate than the previous way. The work was also published in a monthly magazine Royal Astronomical Society.
Pol Gurri, Ph.D. A student from Swinburne University of Technology who led the new research explains: “It’s like looking at a flag and trying to figure out how strong the wind is. You can’t see the wind, but the movement of the flag makes you feel like you are. says how strong the wind is “. ” New research focuses on an effect called weak gravitational lensing, which is a hallmark of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. ,,Dark matter slightly distorts the picture of everything behind it, ”says associate professor Edward Taylor, who also participated in the research.
Weak gravitational lenses are one of the most effective ways to map the dark matter content of the universe. Swinburne’s team has now used the 2.3m ANU telescope in Australia to map the rotation of galaxies with gravitational lenses. “Because we know how stars and gas are supposed to move inside galaxies, we know more or less what this galaxy should look like,” Gurri says. “By measuring how distorted real images of galaxies are pthen we can find out how much dark matter would be needed to explain what we see. “
Zdroj: Phys,
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