Astronomers have created the largest ever map of dark matter
Researchers have created the largest ever map of dark matter, the invisible material thought to account for 80 per cent of the total matter in the universe.
As matter curves space-time, astronomers are able to map its existence by looking at light travelling to Earth from distant galaxies. If the light has been distorted, this means there is matter in the foreground, bending the light as it comes towards us.
The Dark Energy Survey (DES) team used artificial intelligence to analyse images of 100 million galaxies, looking at their shape to see if they have been stretched. The new map, pictured above, is a representation of all matter detected in the foreground of the observed galaxies and covers a quarter of the southern hemisphere’s sky.
Niall Jeffrey at University College London, part of the DES team, says: “Most of the matter in the Universe is dark matter. It is a real wonder to get a glimpse of these vast, hidden structures across a large portion of the night sky.”
“In our map, which mainly shows dark matter, we see a similar pattern as we do with visible matter only, a web-like structure with dense clumps of matter separated by large empty voids,” he said. “Observing these cosmic-scale structures can help us to answer fundamental questions about the universe.”
