Dark matter's secret identity could be hiding in distorted 'Einstein rings'
-
Loading... - Jose Santos
- 27 Apr 2023
- 54 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
Researchers may be a step closer to identifying dark matter after studying unusual cases of gravitational lensing caused by "dark matter halos" surrounding distant galaxies.
Researchers may be one step closer to uncovering the true identity of dark matter after studying how light gets bent out of shape in weirdly warped Einstein rings and other gravitationally lensed objects.
Researchers estimate that dark matter makes up around 85% of the universe. But although experts have observed the gravitational effects of dark matter and mapped out where it could be, scientists still have no idea what it really is. This confusion is caused by the fact that dark matter does not emit light or any other form of electromagnetic radiation like ordinary, or baryonic, matter.
Since dark matter was first theorized in the late 19th century, scientists have made lots of suggestions about what dark matter could really be. However, the scientific community currently recognizes two hypothetical candidates as the most likely culprits: weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), which are predicted to behave much like other like particles; and axions, which are minute particles that likely behave like waves due to quantum interference. But despite years of experiments in particle accelerators, neither WIMPs nor axions have been discovered. Read More…
