First shot of dark matter

First shot of dark matter

Dark matter strands unite the space between the galaxies in this map. Segments of bright galaxies are displayed in white, and dark matter in red.

Scientists from the University of Waterloo were able to take the first composite picture of the dark matter bridge, which is the link of galaxies. It combines a series of images and confirms the fact that all objects of the Universe are connected by one substance, which until now no one has been able to see.

Dark matter occupies 25% of the universe. It does not shine, but absorbs or reflects light, which is why it was literally impossible to see it. Researchers have predicted and calculated its existence for decades, but could not demonstrate or measure it. To make this image, scientists used weak gravitational lensing. This is an effect due to which images of distant galaxies change due to the wagging of an object (a black hole, a planet, or dark matter). The study was conducted by a Canada-France-Hawaii telescope. They connected lens images from 23,000 galactic pairs, about 4.5 billion light-years away, to demonstrate the presence of dark matter. You can see that the dark layer is especially strong between systems that are less than 40 million light-years apart. Thus, it is possible not only to see the presence of dark matter, but also to understand exactly how it unites the galaxies.

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