December 28th, 2008
New photo proof of dark matter
This is cool. The Hubble space telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory have captured images of galaxies colliding that confirm the existence of dark matter, The Scotsman reports.
The photo shows the movement of matter in the aftermath of the collision divided into pink and blue areas.
As the two clusters merged at millions of miles an hour, the picture indicates that the hot gas collided and slowed down, researchers said. But the dark matter did not, as shown by the wider spread of blue, they believe.
The separation of the pink and blue provides evidence for dark matter, and backs the view that particles of the matter react only very weakly with each other or not at all, apart from the pull of gravity.
The finding strongly supports the idea that the universe is filled with dark matter, which acts as a sort of infrastructure for planets, stars and galaxies.
