dark matter tagged posts

Matter comprises of 31% of the Total amount of Matter and Energy in the Universe

A research team relies on measuring the number of galaxy members to determine the mass of galaxy clusters. One of the most interesting and important questions in cosmology is, “How much matter exists in the universe?” An international team, including scientists at Chiba University, has now succeeded in measuring the total amount of matter for the second time. Reporting in The Astrophysical Journal, the team determined that matter makes up 31% of the total amount of matter and energy in the universe, with the remainder consisting of dark energy.

“Cosmologists believe that only about 20% of the total matter is made of regular or ‘baryonic’ matter, which includes stars, galaxies, atoms, and life,” explains first author Dr...

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New Evidence for the Nature of Matter from Ancient Galaxies in the Early Universe

New evidence for the nature of matter from ancient galaxies in the early universe
Distribution of primordial matter in cosmological models with hot dark matter (WDM, left) and cold dark matter. Credit: CDM, destra

Astrophysicists in Italy have shed new light on the nature of matter from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) detection of galaxies from 13 billion years ago and novel state-of-the-art numerical simulations of the first galaxies. The study adds another piece to the puzzle of the nature of matter in the universe.

While the commonly accepted paradigm of structure formation is based on non-relativistic matter that interacts only gravitationally, that is “cold” dark matter, alternative possibilities advocated to solve small-scale problems of the standard scenario rely on the hypothesis that dark matter is made of warm particles that possess a small, non-n...

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New Measurements of Galaxy Rotation lean toward Modified Gravity as an explanation for Dark Matter

Rotation curve of the typical spiral galaxy M 33 (yellow and blue points with errorbars) and the predicted one from distribution of the visible matter (white line). The discrepancy between the two curves is accounted for by adding a dark matter halo surrounding the galaxy. Credit: Public domain / Wikipedia

Although dark matter is a central part of the standard cosmological model, it’s not without its issues. There continue to be nagging mysteries about the stuff, not the least of which is the fact that scientists have found no direct particle evidence of it.

Despite numerous searches, we have yet to detect dark matter particles. So some astronomers favor an alternative, such as modified Newtonian dynamics (MoND) or modified gravity model...

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Antihelium Nuclei as Messengers from the Depths of the Galaxy

Artistic illustration of antihelium annihilation in the  ALICE detector at CERN as well as in the universe.
Artistic illustration of antihelium annihilation in the ALICE detector at CERN as well as in the universe.

New findings lay the foundation for the search for dark matter. How are galaxies born, and what holds them together? Astronomers assume that dark matter plays an essential role. However, as yet it has not been possible to prove directly that dark matter exists. A research team including Technical University of Munich (TUM) scientists has now measured for the first time the survival rate of antihelium nuclei from the depths of the galaxy – a necessary prerequisite for the indirect search for Dark Matter.

Many things point to the existence of dark matter...

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