Post by Mon-Jas Charan on Jan 7, 2007 22:25:56 GMT -5
Hubble Maps the Cosmic Web of 'Clumpy' Dark Matter in 3-D
-Nasa
An international team of astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has created the first three-dimensional map of the large-scale distribution of dark matter in the universe.
Dark matter is an invisible form of matter whose total mass in the universe is roughly five times that of “normal” matter (i.e., atoms). It can be thought of as the scaffolding of the universe. The visible matter we see collects inside this scaffolding in the form of stars and galaxies. The new map provides the best evidence yet that normal matter, including all stars and galaxies, collect within the densest concentrations of dark matter. Mapping dark matter’s distribution in space and time is fundamental to understanding how galaxies grew and clustered over billions of years.
