The new maps charting the location of dark matter over a large portion of the sky has shown that the dark and light cluster together in the universe.
According to the new maps, large amounts of dark matter exist at some places, while other locations are almost completely empty.
The researchers, who had designed the maps, also examined at the location of regular matter, i.e. huge clusters of galaxies, and found that both are likely linked. In simpler terms, the galaxy clusters tend to be located nearby the place where the dark matter exists.
The map was designed and produced after collecting data from the Dark Energy Survey. It was released on Monday at the April 2015 meeting of the American Physical Society. The main goal of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) is to comprehend the mysterious phenomenon that causes the expansion of universe at faster and faster pace.
The new map is prepared in accordance with the current theories, suggesting that the massive gravitational pull of dark matter would pull the regular matter toward it and bring the dark and light universe together.
According to the researchers, the universe possesses nearly five times more dark matter compared to the regular one, and the gargantuan gravitational force produced by all the dark matter influences the formation of galaxies and its evolution.
“Zooming into the maps, we have measured how dark matter envelops galaxies of different types, and how together they evolve over cosmic time. We are eager to use the new data coming in to make much stricter tests of theoretical models,” said Chihway Chang, study lead author from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich.
The scientists used the high resolution camera 750 megapixel Dark Energy Camera to gather the data for the maps. The camera has been mounted on the four meters Victor M. Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Chile.
The study analysis will be detailed at the website arxiv.org on April 14.
