Revealing the first image of dark matter

For the first time, humans have been able to see with their own eyes the mysterious dark matter, hidden under the universe, easily observed with the naked eye.

Dark matter is considered to play a decisive role for hypotheses to explain how the universe is expanding and how galaxies interact with each other. Until now, astronomers have created the first direct images of a part of the dark matter system, using a quasar as the light source.

Quasars are a type of active galactic nucleus , emitting intense radiation under the support of a supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy. The quasar used by astronomers located 10 billion light-years from Earth, illuminated a giant diffuse gas nebula, revealing a network of fibers connecting the galaxy in a cosmic grid.

Simulation of a computer about a space grid, including physical fibers (including dark matter) connected to each other.(Photo: Daily Mail)

Over the years, cosmologists have used computer simulations of the cosmic structure to develop "the standard model of cosmology" . According to their calculations, when the universe evolved, matter became clustered like a giant cosmic grid, composed of fibers and nodes under gravity.

Through the latest results from the Keck telescope in Hawaii, scientists from the University of California (USA) and the Max Planck Astronomical Institute (Germany) have discovered a very special object."It is very large, at least twice as much as any nebula ever discovered and it extends beyond the environment of quasars in the galaxy," said researcher Sebastiano Cantalupo.

Although the observed results support the computer simulation image of a cosmic grid , the team identified, the nebula diffuse 10 times more than predicted. This inaccuracy may be due to limitations in spatial analysis of current models. In particular, current grid-based models lack a certain aspect of basic physics on how galaxies form and interact with quasars.