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First image of dark matter web that connects galaxies

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  • First image of dark matter web that connects galaxies

    Source: A dark matter 'bridge' holding galaxies together has been captured for the first time


    Researchers at the University of Waterloo used a technique known as weak gravitational lensing to create a composite image of the bridge


    0000000000000colludruss2.jpg

    The first image of a dark matter "bridge", believed to form the links between galaxies, has been captured by astrophysicists in Canada.

    Researchers at the University of Waterloo used a technique known as weak gravitational lensing to create a composite image of the bridge. Gravitational lensing is an effect that causes the images of distant galaxies to warp slightly under the influence of an unseen mass, such as a planet, a black hole, or in this case, dark matter.

    Their composite image was made up of a combination of combined lensing images taken of more than 23,000 galaxy pairs, spotted 4.5 billion light-years away. This effect was measured from a multi-year sky survey at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope.

    These results show that the dark matter filament bridge is strongest between systems less than 40 million light years apart, and confirms predictions that galaxies across the Universe are tied together through a cosmic web of the elusive substance.

    Dark matter is a mysterious element said to make up around 84 per cent of the Universe. It's known as "dark" because it doesn't shine, absorb or reflect light, which has traditionally made it largely undetectable, except through gravity and gravitational lensing. Evidence for the existence of this form of matter comes, among other things, from the astrophysical observation of galaxies, which rotate far too rapidly to be held together only by the gravitational pull of the visible matter.

    Astrophysics has long proposed the Universe's web of stars and galaxies is supported by a "cosmic scaffolding" made up of fine threads of this invisible dark matter. These threadlike strands formed just after the Big Bang when denser portions of the Universe drew in dark matter until it collapsed and formed flat disks, which featured fine filaments of dark matter at their joins. At the cross-section of these filaments, galaxies formed.

    0000000000000colludruss2b.jpg

    "For decades, researchers have been predicting the existence of dark matter filaments between galaxies that act like a web-like superstructure connecting galaxies together," said Mike Hudson, a professor of astronomy at the University of Waterloo in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. "This image moves us beyond predictions to something we can see and measure."

    "By using this technique, we're not only able to see that these dark matter filaments in the Universe exist, we're able to see the extent to which these filaments connect galaxies together," said co-author Seth Epps.



    Source

    © Copyright Original Source


    [*Story continues at link above*]


    The entire paper, The weak-lensing masses of filaments between luminous red galaxies, is available at this link. Here is the abstract:

    Source:


    Abstract

    In the standard model of non-linear structure formation, a cosmic web of dark-matter-dominated filaments connects dark matter haloes. In this paper, we stack the weak lensing signal of an ensemble of filaments between groups and clusters of galaxies. Specifically, we detect the weak lensing signal, using CFHTLenS galaxy ellipticities, from stacked filaments between Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)-III/Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey luminous red galaxies (LRGs). As a control, we compare the physical LRG pairs with projected LRG pairs that are more widely separated in redshift space. We detect the excess filament mass density in the projected pairs at the 5σ level, finding a mass of (1.6 ± 0.3) × 1013 M⊙ for a stacked filament region 7.1 h−1 Mpc long and 2.5 h−1 Mpc wide. This filament signal is compared with a model based on the three-point galaxy–galaxy-convergence correlation function, as developed in Clampitt et al., yielding reasonable agreement.

    © Copyright Original Source





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  • #2
    Cool.
    sigpic

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    • #3
      He just took a fuzzy photo of the tail lights of his car.

      Comment


      • #4
        Nice result, but it's not the first dark matter filament we've observed this way. Just like there are filaments between galaxies, there are filaments between galaxy clusters. They're larger, so easier to image, and we were able to do so back in 2012.

        https://www.nature.com/nature/journa...ture11224.html
        "Any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from trolling."

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        • #5
          Thank you for the reference!!
          Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
          Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
          But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

          go with the flow the river knows . . .

          Frank

          I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

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