The researchers used data from the Dark Energy Survey and the Antarctic Telescope to recalculate the total amount and distribution of matter in the universe. They found that there is about six times more dark matter in the universe than normal matter, a finding that is in line with previous measurements.
But the team also found that the problem was less complicated than previously thought, a finding detailed in a he sits from three All research papers have been published this week in Physical Review D.
That Dark Energy Survey observing photons of light at visible wavelengths; That South Pole Telescope Light is visible in microwave wavelengths. This means that the South Pole Telescope is observing the cosmic microwave background – the oldest radiation we can see, dating to about 300,000 years after the Big Bang.
The team presented datasets from the surveys involved in two sky maps; They then superimposed the two maps to understand the complete picture of how matter is distributed in the universe.
said Eric Baxter, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii and one of the co-authors of the research paper Releasing. “The high accuracy and robustness of the source of bias from the new results makes a very convincing case that we may be starting to uncover holes in our standard cosmological models.”
G/O Media may earn commissions
dark matter Something In the universe we cannot observe it directly. We know it’s there because of its gravitational effects, but we can’t see it otherwise. Dark matter makes up about 27% of the universe, According to CERN. (Ordinary matter makes up about 5% of the universe.) The remaining 68% It consists of dark energy, an unconfirmed category that is evenly distributed throughout the universe and is responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe.
The Dark Energy Survey still has three years of data to analyze, and the South Pole Telescope is currently looking again at the cosmic microwave background. Meanwhile, the Atacama Cosmological Telescope (high in the Chilean desert of the same name) is currently conducting a highly sensitive background survey. With new microdata from research, Researchers may be able to put files cosmological standard Hard test example.
In 2021, Atacama Telescopes help scientists emerge A Accurate new measurements For the age of the universe: 13.77 billion years. Further investigation of the cosmic microwave background could also help researchers deal with the Hubble tension, the disagreement between the two best ways to measure the universe’s expansion. (Depending on how you measure it, the researchers came up with two different numbers for this expansion rate.)
As observational methods become more accurate, and more data is collected and analyzed, this information can be fed back into larger cosmological models to pinpoint our past mistakes and point us on new lines of inquiry.
More: Antimatter can travel through our galaxy with ease, physicists say