For the first time found dark matter

American astronomers say they have found the first direct evidence of the mysterious material called dark matter. Dark matter - something that doesn't emit light or doesn't reflect enough light to be visible - accounts for about 25% of the universe.

Observations are drawn from careful weighing of stars and gases emitted in the most violent and violent collision between galaxies known to date.

Photo of Chandra X-ray observatory shows that the constellation of 1E 0657-56, or Bullet Cluster, formed after the violent collision of two galaxies.Pink is a hot gas of the constellation, containing mostly ordinary matter.Most of the mass of the constellation appears in blue, mainly containing dark matter.The clear separation between such ordinary and dark matter has never been observed before, and is the strongest evidence that most of the matter in the universe is " dark ". (Photo: NASA)

It was a clash between two clusters of galaxies, in the event called the Bullet Cluster (1E 0657-56). The clash caused the stars and dark matter of the galaxies to separate, while interplanetary air masses collided with each other and slowed.

" In a typical galaxy, all matter occupies a single space ," said Maxim Markevitch, an astrophysicist from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA.

"In this case, gas and galaxies are separated. Galaxies fly through each other while their gas clouds don't move so easily."

Imagine, it is like a collision at millions of miles per hour between two big peanut casters, with stars and dark matter being peanuts, and cast dough representing blocks. gas. Peanut seeds will break through each other (with very little clash between peanuts), while cast dough will wrap in the middle.

The big collision occurred in the Bullet Cluster.Hot air, containing most of the ordinary matter, is red and dark matter is blue . (Photo: NASA)

As a result, they form different arrays in space: one contains all the hot gas that is coiled together and the other two on both sides contain only dark matter and stars in visible galaxies.

When the " weight " of the total light area where two galaxies clashed, the researchers found it was much heavier than the masses of stars and interplanetary air masses. Thus, the remaining difference must be dark matter.

"This proves simply and directly that dark matter exists," Markevitch said.

To date, the existence of dark matter has been inferred from the fact that galaxies have only enough 1/5 of the necessary material (in visible form) to create gravity to keep them in a stable state. determined. Thus, the rest must be invisible to the telescopes, or " dark ".

Observing the Bullet Cluster does not explain what dark matter is, but they provide a pretty solid trace, the researchers said.

It seems that dark matter particles, whatever they are, behave more like peanuts than cast cakes: they are either very far apart, like stars, or there are other ways to Avoid colliding with each other.

T. An