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Team finds ‘proof’ of dark matter

4:39 am on Tuesday, August 22, 2006

BBC NEWS

US astronomers say they have found the first direct evidence for the mysterious stuff called dark matter.Dark matter - which does not emit or reflect enough light to be “seen” - is thought to make up 25% of the Universe.

By contrast, the ordinary matter we can see is believed to make up no more than about 5% of our Universe.

Until now, astronomers have only been able to infer the existence of this dark material through the gravitational effects it has on ordinary matter.

The researchers have discovered what is effectively the gravitational signature of dark matter.

This signature was created by dark matter and ordinary matter being wrenched apart by the immense collision of two large galaxy clusters.

This is a pretty big deal in cosmology and seems to vindicate a long standing theory has was very difficult to prove.  Interesting stuff.

1 Comment »

Comment by probligo

August 22, 2006 @ 6:51 pm

Interesting stuff indeed

This proof of existence, appearing in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters, does nothing to reveal what dark matter really is, however. “Over the years, we’ve pretty much ruled out all sorts of baryonic dark matter possibilities like brown dwarfs or black holes. We’re pretty much left with some new subatomic particles,” notes team member Dennis Zaritsky of the University of Arizona. “It’s a little embarrassing to claim we know anything about the universe when we don’t know what 90 percent of the matter out there is.”

God stuff?

Oh, btw the little video Sciam have is worth a watch.

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