Astronomers study clusters of dark matter the size of a galactic nucleus

According to media reports, researchers have studied the nature of dark matter accretions in unprecedented detail and examined a list of theoretical models that explain them, according to Doss.

Japanese astrophysicists have for the first time studied the structure, properties and distribution of finite accumulations of dark matter comparable to the center of the Milky Way. Japan’s National Institute of Natural Sciences press service said Thursday (Sept. 7) that the observations narrowed the number of theories that could explain the nature of this invisible object. Details of the work were published Thursday in The Astrophysical Journal.

A statement issued by the press service of the Japanese institute said: “Gravitational lensing created by a group of galaxies in the Taurus constellation allowed scientists to observe fluctuations in the distribution of dark matter for the first time at very precise, quantifiable scales.” About 30,000 light years. “The results of these measurements match the predictions of the classical theory of cold dark matter, and impose new constraints on alternative theories.”

A team of Japanese astrophysicists led by Kaiki Inoue, a professor at Kennedy University, came to this conclusion while observing the radiation of the ancient bright star quasar MG J0414+0534, 11.2 billion light-years away from Earth. We see it as it was 2.5 billion years after the Big Bang.

The quasar’s radiation travels through the ocean to Earth at the same time as four galaxies, or clusters of them, whose gravity bends and intensifies the light emitted by MG J0414+0534, the scientists said. The researchers took advantage of this feature, known as “gravitational lensing,” to study how relatively small clumps of dark matter affect the galactic radiation flux.

Using the ALMA telescope, scientists obtained detailed images of the quasar MG J0414+0534 and compared the quasar’s emission spectra in different regions of these images, allowing them to map the limited accumulations of dark matter encountered by radiation en route to MG J0414+0534. on the ground.

Their sizes, their distribution and some other properties as invisible clumps of mass match the results of calculations based on the generally accepted theory, which states that dark matter consists of very heavy, weakly interacting WIMPs or very light particles.

The astrophysicists concluded that this severely limits the list of alternative theories that correctly describe the available data on the distribution of dark matter throughout the universe.

For a long time, astronomers assumed that the universe consisted of visible matter, which formed the basis of all stars, nebulae, galaxies, dust clusters, and planets. When scientists first accurately measured the rotation speeds of stars in the outer and central regions of nearby galaxies, they found that stars on the outskirts of galaxies were traveling ten times faster than theory predicted.

Astronomers now believe that stars orbiting the centers of galaxies at unusually high speeds is linked to the presence of dark matter, a mysterious substance that makes up 75% of all matter in the universe. Over the past few decades, astronomers have been trying to find traces of its existence and measure the properties of its molecules, which has so far been impossible.