Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Astronomer’s Map Dark Matter Throughout the Entire Universe

Astronomer’s Map Dark Matter Throughout the Entire Universe:
Full sky map of the cosmic microwave background. The color red indicates a cool spot while the color blue indicates a hot spot. Image credit: NASA.
Full sky map of the cosmic microwave background. The color red indicates a cool spot while the color blue indicates a hot spot. Image credit: NASA.
Warped visions of the cosmic microwave background – the earliest detectable light – allow astronomers to map the total amount of visible and invisible matter throughout the universe.
Roughly 85 percent of all matter in the universe is dark matter, invisible to even the most powerful telescopes, but detectable by its gravitational pull.
In order to find dark matter, astronomers look for an effect called gravitational lensing: when the gravitational pull of dark matter bends and amplifies light from a more distant object. In its most eccentric form it results in multiple arc-shaped images of distant cosmic objects.
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Read the rest of Astronomer’s Map Dark Matter Throughout the Entire Universe (515 words)

© Shannon Hall for Universe Today, 2013. |Permalink |No comment |
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