DesertFox
05-16-2007, 06:59 PM
US astronomers on Tuesday presented the most solid proof yet of the existence of dark matter, a mysterious substance believed to make up more than a quarter of the universe.
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope spotted a ring of dark matter in a galaxy cluster some five billion light-years away from Earth, which measured some 2.6 million light-years across.
http://img.breitbart.com/images/2007/5/15/070515182921.g8xy3i8h/SGE.DQD21.150507181212.photo00.photo.jpg
So far as I could tell, this image has nothing at all to do with this article; but it sure as heck is a glorious view. Also, it fits in here so nicely.
"This is the first time we have detected dark matter as having a unique structure that is different from the gas and galaxies in the cluster," said James Jee, a member of NASA's team of astronomers.
Astronomers have long suspected there must be some substance holding galaxy clusters together, otherwise galaxies would only have the gravity from their visible stars, which would not be enough to keep them from flying apart.
Though invisible, astronomers have inferred dark matter exists by observing how its gravity bends the light of more distant background galaxies.
More (http://breitbart.com/article.php?id=070515182921.g8xy3i8h&show_article=1&catnum=0&image=large)
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope spotted a ring of dark matter in a galaxy cluster some five billion light-years away from Earth, which measured some 2.6 million light-years across.
http://img.breitbart.com/images/2007/5/15/070515182921.g8xy3i8h/SGE.DQD21.150507181212.photo00.photo.jpg
So far as I could tell, this image has nothing at all to do with this article; but it sure as heck is a glorious view. Also, it fits in here so nicely.
"This is the first time we have detected dark matter as having a unique structure that is different from the gas and galaxies in the cluster," said James Jee, a member of NASA's team of astronomers.
Astronomers have long suspected there must be some substance holding galaxy clusters together, otherwise galaxies would only have the gravity from their visible stars, which would not be enough to keep them from flying apart.
Though invisible, astronomers have inferred dark matter exists by observing how its gravity bends the light of more distant background galaxies.
More (http://breitbart.com/article.php?id=070515182921.g8xy3i8h&show_article=1&catnum=0&image=large)