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Mysterious Dark Matter Seen in New High-Resolution Map of Distant Galaxies
JWST’s map doubles previous resolution, revealing nearly 800,000 galaxies to better trace dark matter’s role in cosmic structure over 10 billion years, researchers said.
- On January 26, the study published in Nature Astronomy provides the highest-resolution dark matter map using images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.
- Because dark matter emits no light and is inferred gravitationally, mapping is crucial since it is about five times more prevalent than ordinary matter and comprises about 85 per cent of total matter.
- Using shape distortions in about 250,000 galaxies, researchers applied weak gravitational lensing and 255 hours of Webb observing time on the COSMOS field to create a map twice Hubble Space Telescope's resolution.
- The new map reveals dark-matter-dominated structures that do not always match luminous matter, enabling tighter cosmological parameter constraints and supporting three-dimensional Webb dark matter map development.
- Complementing Webb, wide-area surveys from the European Space Agency's Euclid telescope, Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope , and Vera C. Rubin Observatory enable combined analyses to probe cold versus warm dark matter and support three-dimensional mapping efforts.
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Astronomers unveil map of dark matter’s distribution in universe
WASHINGTON — Using observations from the James Webb Space Telescope in a patch of the sky covering almost three times the area of the full moon, scientists have created the most detailed cosmic map to date of the mysterious substance called dark matter that accounts for most of the stuff that populates the universe.
With the »James Webb« telescope, researchers have captured invisible structures in a heavenly region as precisely as never before. However, a great mystery remains unsolved.
·Germany
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Researchers have been able to see new clusters, new densities of invisible matter before.
·Montreal, Canada
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Total News Sources56
Leaning Left10Leaning Right4Center33Last UpdatedBias Distribution70% Center
Bias Distribution
- 70% of the sources are Center
70% Center
L 21%
C 70%
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