“The other astronomical observations, usually, depend on a lot more uncertainties, but lensing is a very specific test of the distribution of mass in a system. “We think this is a pretty strong piece of evidence that signals something about the nature of dark matter, primarily because it uses the technique of gravitational lensing,” said Amruth in an email to Motherboard. Background objects can appear distorted, magnified, and even multiplied by the gravity of foreground objects, allowing scientists to see details about distant objects that would be otherwise out of view-and now, to probe for disturbances that could indicate dark matter. Gravitational lenses are like natural telescopes that form when light from an object, such as a galaxy, is bent by the gravitational field of another object located in front of it from our perspective on Earth. Now, scientists led by Alfred Amruth, a PhD student studying astrophysics at the University of Hong Kong, have shed new light on dark matter with the help of a trippy spacetime phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, which is predicted by Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Though dark matter does not emit light, scientists know it exists because we can see its gravitational influence on astronomical objects, such as galaxy clusters. ![]() Dark matter is about five times more abundant in the cosmos than the familiar “baryonic” matter that makes up stars, planets, and all life on Earth, yet our efforts to determine what this weird stuff actually is have so far fallen short.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |