Where is the dark matter is one of the great mysteries of the cosmos, but if someone thought we had all the barionic matter (the “conventional” matter) in the cosmos … it was wrong. At least until now.
What was missing. A new study He has found in the cosmic network the barionic matter that remained hidden and that would represent about half of the “conventional” matter of the universe (matter which in turn only represents about 15% of the total matter). He has achieved it thanks to rapid radio (FRB) bursts, mysterious radio wave bursts that run the cosmos occasionally and have served to “illuminate” the subject of this intergalactic network.
A network of “highways” in space. The cosmic network is a series of filaments of enormous size located in the intergalactic space in which a good part of the subject of the universe is distributed. These filaments are stretched clouds of gas and particles whose characteristics We discover little by little.
Recent studies had documented the existence of this elusive network. The fact that the gas and particles that compose it are inert and do not give off light made their observation very difficult, which required hundreds of hours of dedication by powerful telescopes like VLT (Vary Large Telescope) of the European Observatory Austral (ESO).
DSA-110. For study, the team had to build its own observatory in the California desert, in DSA (Deep synoptic array) -110. The name DSA-110 refers to the fact that this is a telescope composed of a network of 110 antennas.
FRB The new Observatory was responsible for the detection of 39 of the 69 FRB thanks to which the deccovement was possible. These bursts are intense intriguing radio signals that we occasionally receive from the cosmos. We do not know exactly its cause or causes, but we suspect that they can be caused by supernovae or similar events. Some of these frb are repeated periodically while others are punctual; The origin of some can be located in a concrete galaxy, that of others does not.
The frb used in the study They had their origin at points located at distances between 11.74 million light years and 9,100 million light years. This last distance, marked by the event FRB 20230521B, now marks a record: that of the most distant gust detected.
Illuminating the highway. According to Explain the team itself Responsible for the study, the FRB “shine through the fog of the intergalactic medium.” When studying how this light stops when you meet matter, it is possible to measure this mist.
When crossing the filaments, the frb light also separates in different wavelengths, such as when we see that a white light breaks down when crossing a prism, generating an rainbow. The measure to which the light decomposes also offers key information about the medium that is going through.
The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Nature Astronomy.
Halos or networks. So far the cosmological models indicated that there was more barionic matter in the universe than we were able to observe. The new estimate of the mass of the huge filaments of the cosmic network allows us to fill in these holes.
The new estimate indicates that 76% of the conventional matter of the cosmos is in the intergalactic environment, while 15% would be in the “halos” of the galaxies, while the rest, about 9% of this matter, would be the subject of which the interior of the galaxies is composed: planet stars and everything that lives are already vast cosmic structures.
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Image | Vikram Ravi/Caltech/Ovro / Jack Madden, Illustristng, Ralf Konietzka, Liam Connor/CFA
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