2023-09-17 04:00:14
The Universe still hides many mysteries, but a team of Japanese researchers has just lifted the veil on one of them. Thanks to unprecedented observations, they succeeded in mapping the distribution of dark matter with unprecedented precision, up to a scale of 30,000 light years.
Conceptual diagram of the MG J0414+0534 gravitational lens system. Dark matter (In astrophysics, dark matter (or dark matter), translation from English…) associated with the galaxy (Galaxies is a quarterly French magazine devoted to science fiction. With…) of lens is shown in pale blue and white. Black matter in intergalactic space is represented in orange.
Credit: NAOJ, KT Inoue
Dark matter is a mysterious component of the Universe. Invisible, it only manifests itself through its gravitational effects. Although it constitutes the majority of matter in the Universe, it has never been isolated in the laboratory. Researchers must therefore resort to “natural experiments” to study it.
Among these experiments, we find gravitational lenses. This is a phenomenon where two celestial objects are aligned in our field of vision from Earth (Earth is the third planet in the Solar System in order of distance…). The material surrounding the object in the foreground acts like a lens, distorting the light. electromagnetics visible to the eye…) of the object in the background. However, the resolution needed to detect dark matter clusters less massive than galaxies is difficult to achieve.
The team, led by Professor Kaiki Taro Inoue of Kindai University, used the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) network. to study the gravitational lens system MG J0414+0534. This system produces not one, but four images of the object in the background, due to the gravitational force of a massive galaxy (The word massive can be used as:).
Dark matter fluctuations in the MG J0414+0534 lens system. The blue/whitish color represents the gravitational lensing images observed by ALMA. The calculated distribution of dark matter is shown in orange; lighter regions indicate higher concentrations of dark matter and dark orange regions indicate lower concentrations.
Credit: ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), KT Inoue et al.
Using a new data analysis method, researchers were able to detect fluctuations in the distribution of dark matter with unprecedented resolution, down to a scale of 30,000 light years. These new constraints are in agreement with models of “cold” or low-speed dark matter particles (We distinguish:).
Looking ahead, the team plans to carry out additional observations to better understand the nature of dark matter.
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