http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/space_time/dark_matter/ Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Read what astronomers are discovering about a gaping hole in the universe, how dark matter clumps contribute to galaxy formation and more. Space images. en-us Tue, 13 May 2008 01:05:01 EDT Tue, 13 May 2008 01:05:01 EDT 60 http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/logosmall.gif http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/space_time/dark_matter/ For more science articles, visit ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080506194033.htm ESA's orbiting X-ray observatory XMM-Newton has been used by a team of international astronomers to uncover part of the missing matter in the universe. Ten years ago, scientists predicted that about half of the missing 'ordinary' or normal matter made of atoms exists in the form of low-density gas, filling vast spaces between galaxies. But the low density of the gas hampered many attempts to detect it in the past. With XMM-Newton's high sensitivity, astronomers have discovered its hottest parts. Wed, 07 May 2008 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080506194033.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080501091356.htm A new space mission, due to launch this month, is going to shed light on some of the most extreme astrophysical processes in nature -- including pulsars, remnants of supernovae, and supermassive black holes. It could even help us comprehend the origin and distribution of dark matter. Sun, 04 May 2008 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080501091356.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080502133106.htm A team of scientists will expend 22 million computational hours during the next year on one of the world's most powerful supercomputers, simulating an event that takes less than five seconds. This astrophysics work explores how the laws of nature unfold in natural phenomena at unimaginably extreme temperatures and pressures. The Blue Gene/P supercomputer will serve as one of their primary tools for studying exploding stars. Sat, 03 May 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080502133106.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080429095054.htm Astronomers looking at the universe's distant past found nine young, unusually compact galaxies, each weighing in at 200 billion times the mass of the Sun. These young galaxies are the equivalent of a human baby that is 20 inches long, yet weighs 180 pounds. Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080429095054.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080417102517.htm A 4.1-meter diameter primary mirror, a vital part of the world's newest and fastest survey telescope, VISTA has been delivered to its new mountaintop home at Cerro Paranal, Chile. Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080417102517.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080415160358.htm Astronomers have identified huge star streams in the outskirts of two nearby spiral galaxies. For the first time, they have obtained a panoramic overview of an example of galactic cannibalism similar to that involving the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy in the vicinity of the Milky Way. The detection of these immense stellar fossils confirms the predictions of the cold dark matter model of cosmology, which proposes that present-day grand design spiral galaxies were formed from the merging of less massive stellar systems. Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080415160358.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080414145656.htm The Delta II 7920-H, or "Heavy," rocket that will launch NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Telescope satellite is in the process of being assembled on Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080414145656.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080402202332.htm A detailed analysis of eight dwarf galaxies that orbit the Milky Way indicates that their orbital behavior can be explained more accurately with Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) than by the rival, but more widely accepted, theory of dark matter. Mon, 07 Apr 2008 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080402202332.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080401160020.htm Using the most sensitive images ever obtained with the United Kingdom Infra-Red Telescope, astronomers have found convincing evidence that galaxies which look old early in the history of the Universe reside in enormous clouds of invisible dark matter and will eventually evolve into the most massive galaxies that exist in the present day. Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080401160020.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080331190612.htm Something is pulling the universe apart. What is it, and where will it take us from here? Scientists are seeking answers to those questions with the newly-commissioned South Pole Telescope. Frigid and bone-dry, with six straight months of night each year, the South Pole is a forbidding place to live or work. But for largely the same reasons, it's one of the best spots on the planet for surveying the faint cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation left over from the Big Bang. Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080331190612.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080401112356.htm Preparations for launching NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Telescope satellite are underway at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The twin solar panels have been attached. The panels will provide electrical power for GLAST after its launch into earth orbit. Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080401112356.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080311124548.htm Scientists and engineers will study how to design a telescope on the moon for peering into the last unexplored epoch in the universe's history. There was an interval, now called the "Dark Ages," in which the Universe was unlit by any star. Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080311124548.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080307095223.htm Astronomers have measured the distribution of mass inside a dark filament in a molecular cloud with an amazing level of detail and to great depth. The measurement is based on a new method that looks at the scattered near-infrared light or 'cloudshine' and was made with ESO's New Technology Telescope. Associated with the forthcoming VISTA telescope, this new technique will allow astronomers to better understand the cradles of newborn stars. Sun, 09 Mar 2008 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080307095223.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080307182745.htm There is new evidence that a sea of cosmic neutrinos permeates the universe, clear evidence the first stars took more than a half-billion years to create a cosmic fog, and tight new constraints on the burst of expansion in the universe's first trillionth of a second, all from five years of data collected by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080307182745.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080228100731.htm Physicists have built the world's most sensitive WIMP detectors in an attempt to catch some of those mysterious particles of dark matter. Running a clearn-room laboratory a half-mile underground in an old iron ore mine raises challenges of its own. Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080228100731.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080228143538.htm Interstellar space may be strewn with tiny whiskers of carbon, dimming the light of far-away objects. This discovery may have implications for the "dark energy" hypothesis, proposed a decade ago in part to explain the unexpected dimness of certain stellar explosions called Type 1a supernovae. Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080228143538.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080225101110.htm Scientists of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiment have announced that they have set the world's best constraints on the properties of dark matter candidates. WIMPs, or weakly interacting massive particles, are leading candidates for the building blocks of dark matter, which accounts for 85 percent of the entire mass of the universe. Hundreds of billions of WIMPs may have passed through your body as you read these sentences. Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080225101110.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080221084148.htm Venus Express has revealed a planet of extraordinarily changeable and extremely large-scale weather. Bright hazes appear in a matter of days, reaching from the south pole to the low southern latitudes and disappearing just as quickly. Such 'global weather', unlike anything on Earth, has given scientists a new mystery to solve. The cloud-covered world of Venus is all but a featureless, unchangeable globe at visible wavelengths of light. Switch to the ultraviolet and it reveals a truly dynamic nature. Transient dark and bright markings stripe the planet, indicating regions where solar ultraviolet radiation is absorbed or reflected, respectively. Tue, 26 Feb 2008 02:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080221084148.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080221121109.htm Astronomer have discovered the largest structures of dark matter ever seen. Measuring 270 million light-years across, these dark matter structures criss-cross the night sky, each spanning an area that is eight times larger than the full moon. Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080221121109.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080219122014.htm Despite the incredible diversity of Saturn's icy moons, theirs is a story of great interaction. Some of them are pock-marked, some seemingly dirty, others pristine, one spongy, one two-faced, some still spewing with activity and some seeming to be captured from the far reaches of the solar system. Yet many of them have a common thread -- black "stuff" coating their surfaces. "We are beginning to unravel the mysteries of these different and strange moons," said Rosaly Lopes, Cassini scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. She coordinated a special section of 14 papers about Saturn's icy moons that appears in the February issue of the journal Icarus. Thu, 21 Feb 2008 08:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080219122014.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080214144535.htm Scientists working on the COUPP experiment at DOE's Fermilab have announced a new development in the quest to observe dark matter. The experiment tightened constraints on "spin-dependent" properties of WIMPS, particles that are candidates for dark matter. Their results, combined with the findings of other dark matter searches, contradict the claims for the observation of such particles by the DAMA experiment and further restrict the hunting ground for physicists to track their dark matter quarry. Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080214144535.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080212095443.htm The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, with a boost from a natural "zoom lens," has found the strongest evidence so far for a galaxy with a redshift significantly above 7. It is likely to be one of the youngest and brightest galaxies ever seen right after the cosmic "dark ages," just 700 million years after the beginning of our universe (redshift ~7.6). Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080212095443.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080205115813.htm The galaxy NGC 1132 is most likely a cosmic fossil -- the aftermath of an enormous multi-galactic pile-up, where the carnage of collision after collision has built up a brilliant but fuzzy giant elliptical galaxy far outshining typical galaxies. In visible light NGC 1132 appears as a single, isolated, giant elliptical galaxy, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Thu, 07 Feb 2008 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080205115813.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080131094056.htm Astronomers believe they can "simplify the dark side of the universe" by shedding new light on two of its mysterious constituents. Only 4% of the universe is made of known material - the other 96% is traditionally labeled into two sectors, dark matter and dark energy. "Both dark matter and dark energy could be two faces of the same coin," according to an astrophysicist. Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080131094056.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080130130650.htm Astronomers have used ESO's Very Large Telescope to measure the distribution and motions of thousands of galaxies in the distant universe. This opens fascinating perspectives to better understand what drives the acceleration of the cosmic expansion and sheds new light on the mysterious dark energy that is thought to permeate the universe. Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080130130650.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080114083851.htm NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected plump black holes where least expected -- skinny galaxies. Like people, galaxies come in different shapes and sizes. There are thin spirals both with and without central bulges of stars, and more rotund ellipticals that are themselves like giant bulges. Scientists have long held that all galaxies except the slender, bulgeless spirals harbor supermassive black holes at their cores. Furthermore, bulges were thought to be required for black holes to grow. Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080114083851.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080112154654.htm Astronomers have produced a scientific gold mine of detailed, high-quality images of nearby galaxies that is yielding important new insights into many aspects of galaxies, including their complex structures, how they form stars, the motions of gas in the galaxies, the relationship of "normal" matter to unseen "dark matter," and many others. Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080112154654.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080110102323.htm For the first time astronomers are able to see indirect evidence of dark matter and how this invisible force impacts on the crowded and violent lives of galaxies. They have produced the highest resolution map of dark matter ever captured. Dark matter is an invisible form of matter that accounts for most of the Universe's mass. Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080110102323.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080112160830.htm The shape of the mysterious cloud of antimatter in the central regions of the Milky Way has been revealed by ESA's orbiting gamma-ray observatory Integral. The unexpectedly lopsided shape is a new clue to the origin of the antimatter. The observations have significantly decreased the chances that the antimatter is coming from the annihilation or decay of astronomical dark matter. Mon, 14 Jan 2008 02:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080112160830.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080110102319.htm The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has revealed a never-before-seen optical alignment in space: a pair of glowing rings, one nestled inside the other like a bull's-eye pattern. The double-ring pattern is caused by the complex bending of light from two distant galaxies strung directly behind a foreground massive galaxy, like three beads on a string. Sat, 12 Jan 2008 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080110102319.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080110194502.htm Cosmologists have run a series of huge computer simulations of the Universe that could ultimately help solve the mystery of dark energy. Results of the simulations tell researchers how to measure dark energy -- a repulsive force that counteracts gravity. Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080110194502.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080109173722.htm Astronomers may have solved one of the most vexing mysteries in our Milky Way: the origin of a giant cloud of antimatter surrounding the galactic center. Integral found that the cloud extends farther on the western side of the galactic center than it does on the eastern side. This imbalance matches the distribution of a population of binary star systems that contain black holes or neutron stars, strongly suggesting that these binaries are churning out at least half of the antimatter, and perhaps all of it. Thu, 10 Jan 2008 02:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080109173722.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080108113608.htm NASA scientists and a space shuttle astronaut outlined details of a challenging mission that will repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope in 2008. The Hubble servicing mission, designated STS-125, will equip the orbiting observatory with far greater capabilities than ever had before to explore the nature and history of our universe. Thu, 10 Jan 2008 02:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080108113608.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071204175758.htm NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope has arrived at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, for its final round of testing. The GLAST spacecraft has successfully completed two of its three environmental tests. These tests included exposure to extreme vibrations and electromagnetic fields. Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071204175758.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071206113223.htm Much of the gaseous mass of the universe is bound up in a tangled web of cosmic filaments that stretch for hundreds of millions of light-years, according to a new supercomputer study. Fri, 07 Dec 2007 08:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071206113223.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071203090139.htm Perhaps the first stars in the newborn universe did not shine, but instead were invisible "dark stars" 400 to 200,000 times wider than the sun and powered by the annihilation of mysterious dark matter a new study concludes. Tue, 04 Dec 2007 08:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071203090139.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071130075008.htm Three quarters of our universe is made up of some weird, gravitationally repulsive substance that was only discovered ten years ago -- dark energy. Scientists note how little we know about dark energy and describe what advances in our knowledge of dark energy we can expect in the coming decade from a series of planned space missions. Mon, 03 Dec 2007 08:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071130075008.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071129183827.htm Researchers using supercomputer simulations have exposed a very violent and critical relationship between interstellar gas and dark matter when galaxies are born -- one that has been largely ignored by the current model of how the universe evolved. The findings, published in Science, solve a longstanding problem of the widely accepted model -- Cold Dark Matter cosmology -- which suggests there is much more dark matter in the central regions of galaxies than actual scientific observations suggest. Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071129183827.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071127142128.htm Einstein's self-proclaimed "biggest blunder" -- his postulation of a cosmological constant (a force that opposes gravity and keeps the universe from collapsing) -- may not be such a blunder after all, according to the research of an international team of scientists. Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071127142128.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071024150023.htm Exploding stars that light the way for research on dark energy aren't as powerful or bright, on average, as they once were, say astronomers. The study, which compared supernovae in nearby galaxies with those that exploded up to nine billion light years away in the distant universe, found the distant supernovae were an average of 12 per cent brighter. The distant supernovae were brighter because they were younger, the study found. Sun, 28 Oct 2007 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071024150023.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071025080826.htm Stars in dwarf spheroidal galaxies behave in a way that suggests the galaxies are utterly dominated by dark matter, astronomers have found. Astronomers measured the velocity of 6,804 stars in seven dwarf satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. They found that, contrary to what Newton's law of gravity predicts, stars in these galaxies do not move slower the farther they are from their galaxy's core. Sun, 28 Oct 2007 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071025080826.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071008145004.htm NASA scientists are on the trail of Iapetus' mysterious dark side, which seems to be home to a bizarre "runaway" process that is transporting vaporized water ice from the dark areas to the white areas of the Saturnian moon. This "thermal segregation" model may explain many details of the moon's strange and dramatically two-toned appearance, which have been revealed exquisitely in images collected during a recent close flyby of Iapetus by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071008145004.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071002100235.htm We've all been taught that our bodies, the Earth and in fact all matter in the universe is composed of tiny building blocks called atoms. Now imagine if this weren't the case. This mind-bending concept is at the core of the scientific research that astronomers and physicists are now pursuing. Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071002100235.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071001112906.htm The universe consists not just of visible celestial bodies, stars, planets and galaxies. It also has a mystical fellow player -- dark matter. The astronomers can measure that the dark matter exists in big quantities but no one knows what it is, nobody has seen it. It does not emit light and it does not reflect light. It is invisible. New research is starting to illuminate the mysterious nature of dark matter. Thu, 04 Oct 2007 23:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071001112906.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071002084628.htm The amount of dark matter left over from the early universe may be less than previously believed. The 'relic abundance' of stable dark matter particles such as the neutralino may be reduced as compared to standard cosmology theories due to the effects of the 'dilaton,' a particle with zero spin in the gravitational sector of strings. Tue, 02 Oct 2007 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071002084628.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070913140318.htm A groundbreaking study has provided new insight into the way the first stars were formed at the start of the universe, some 13 billion years ago. Cosmologists suggest that the formation of the first stars depends crucially on the nature of "dark matter," the strange material that makes up most of the mass in the universe. Tue, 18 Sep 2007 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070913140318.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070914173533.htm Scientists may have solved a discrepancy between the number of extremely small, faint galaxies predicted to exist near the Milky Way and the number actually observed. In an attempt to resolve the "Missing Dwarf Galaxy" problem, two astronomers used the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii to study a population of the darkest, most lightweight galaxies known, each containing 99% dark matter. The findings suggest the "Missing Dwarf Galaxy" problem is not as severe as previously thought, and may have been solved completely. Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070914173533.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070913145125.htm The universe's earliest stars may hold clues to the nature of dark matter, the mysterious stuff that makes up most of the universe's matter but doesn't interact with light, cosmologists report. The first stars in an early universe filled with moderately energetic, or "warm," dark matter would probably have developed in long strings, according to a study in journal Science. In contrast, simulations with slow-moving, cold dark matter generally show the first stars forming in clumps. Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070913145125.htm