US EditionAstronomers Pin Down Universe's Missing Matter in Cosmic Web
- On June 16, researchers from the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard and Smithsonian, together with scientists from Caltech, published a study in Nature Astronomy that identified the location of the universe's missing ordinary matter.
- This study utilized fast radio bursts to address the longstanding issue of missing baryonic matter, clarifying that the challenge was not about the existence of this matter but rather identifying its location.
- The team analyzed 60 FRBs ranging from 11.74 million to 9.1 billion light-years and found that about 76% of baryonic matter lies in the intergalactic medium, 15% in halo gas, and 9% in galaxies.
- Liam Connor explained that fast radio bursts pass through the diffuse matter between galaxies, and by accurately analyzing the delay in their signals, scientists can determine the amount of this otherwise invisible material.
- This research confirms theoretical predictions with direct evidence and enables future detailed mapping of cosmic matter distribution using next-generation radio telescopes.
66 Articles
66 Articles
One third of the "normal matter", which also consists of planets and humans, escaped any observation until the end. Now astronomers have identified them using two X-ray telescopes in a structure of hot gas.
Astronomers Suggest That Entire Stars Are Being Obscured by Giant "Lampshades" of Dark Matter
Hunting for dark matter, the invisible substance thought to account for 85 percent of all mass in the cosmos, isn't easy. If it interacts with light at all, it does so incredibly weakly. Still, we can see its handiwork everywhere, with its gravitational pull determining the formation of everything from whole galaxies to individual stars. Now a team of astronomers is proposing a new technique for searching for dark matter — and it runs counter to…
Fast Radio Bursts are Helping to Locate the Universe's Missing Matter
You're probably aware that most of the matter of the Universe is "dark matter," and astronomers still don't know what it is. But 75% of the regular matter in the Universe is also hidden, located in the thin gas between galaxies. Probing this gas is difficult, but astronomers have used a new technique, analyzing the light from fast radio bursts as they pass through billions of light-years of gas. Longer, redder wavelengths are slowed down compare…
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