Mapping Dark Matter., page 1

posted on Dec, 12 2005 @ 11:31 AM

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Astronomers have used the Hubble Telescope to map the location of dark matter in great detail in two young galaxy clusters.

www.jhu.edu
JHU-STScI Team Maps Dark Matter in Startling Detail

Clues revealed by the recently sharpened view of the Hubble Space Telescope have allowed astronomers to map the location of invisible "dark matter" in unprecedented detail in two very young galaxy clusters.

A Johns Hopkins University-Space Telescope Science Institute team reports its findings in the December issue of Astrophysical Journal.

"Advances in computer technology now allow us to simulate the entire universe and to follow the coalescence of matter into stars, galaxies, clusters of galaxies and enormously long filaments of matter from the first hundred thousand years to the present," Jee said. "However, it is very challenging to verify the simulation results observationally, because dark matter does not emit light."

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www.sciencedaily.com

This is the snapshot of the computer simulation of the dark matter Universe. These filamentary structures are called "cosmic webs" of dark matter. (Image courtesy of Johns Hopkins University)

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I can't wait until the Webb Telescope is up so we can get even deeper into the nature of dark matter.

[edit on 12/12/2005 by Umbrax]

Yarium

posted on Dec, 12 2005 @ 12:29 PM

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I think there's way too much fantasy on the subject on Dark Matter. People tend to treat it as a special brand of matter - that i could have fantastic properties and potential. In truth all Dark Matter is just matter that can't be detected with light. In fact, to an astronomer not on earth, you are Dark Matter. He doesn't know exactly where you are, or what kind of properties you have - but he does know that you are a mass that isn't accounted for yet. Heck, he might be shocked to see that your gravitational imprint moves around pretty erratically, and also seems to spend a lot of time orbitting other pieces of dark matter like yourself.

All I'm saying is that Dark Matter really isn't that important. We are finding out more about the structure and composition of our universe by studying it - but little more. I think more of our studies should go towards studying strange subatomic particles and energies (like micro-singularities) - something that will help us out much more than finding out what the universe is made of.

But then again... that's just my view on this. I'm sure that you consider Dark Matter to be very fascinating, and I hope that the results of this study aid you somehow.

Amorymeltzer

posted on Dec, 12 2005 @ 04:09 PM

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Why, it looks EXACTLY like the old maps!

Anyway, I sort of agree with you, Yarium. DM is given a whole lot of hoopla, when, really, it's just matter you don't see. That doesn't mean it's not important, though. Anything that accounts for nearly all the matter in the universe is probably worth studying.