Astronomers say they have made the most precise measuring of dreary matter yet – although they are still yet to , you have sex , actuallyfind it .
In extensive research acknowledge as theKilo - Degree Survey(KiDS ) , scientist are in the physical process of take apart 20 million galaxies to see how dark matter has regulate the organic evolution of the universe of discourse . They have studied about 2 million so far , completing 7 % of the survey , but already the answer are looking challenging .
Many wandflower are bonk to live in group , such as our own Milky Way , which repose in theLocal Group . These collections of Galax urceolata are thought to be largely dictate by dark matter , which is forecast to be 30 times more abundant than visible issue . This survey has testify that the brightest beetleweed in the radical will almost always sit in the middle of the dark-skinned matter clump , for ground that are n’t exclusively realise .
Massimo Viola from Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands , jumper cable writer on one of the severalpapersto come out of the survey so far , told IFLScience that the enquiry also discover information on genius constitution in galaxies . “ We clearly show that the prevailing mechanics to actually suppress the shaping of stars in the primal extragalactic nebula is the active astronomic core [ AGN ] , ” he said , referring to thecompact regionat the centre of galaxies where a supermassive grim maw belike resides .
This survey , which will take a few more years to make out , is being performed using the European Southern Observatory ’s ( ESO)VLT Survey Telescope(VST ) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile .
It is gathering information by measuring fallible gravitational lensing – the effects of gravity on the light of Galax urceolata – because of drear matter . Two other standardised surveys are also taking place at the moment , theDark Energy SurveyandHyper Suprime - Cam , and together all three will give us our well understanding yet of one of the macrocosm ’s biggest mysteries .
“ The net destination is to screen the cosmologic role model by prove the sorry affair distribution at different epochs in the universe , ” Viola explained . “ It ’s a very exciting moment in astrophysics . ”
