Strands of dark matter that join galaxies and bind universe made ‘visible’
South Africa’s Karoo-based KAT-7 radio telescope array are pictured at sunset at The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in Karoo near Carnavon in South Africa’s remote Northern Cape province on July 4 , 2012.
A giant string of invisible dark matter joining together two clusters of galaxies has been discovered, turning scientific theory to observed fact.
Dark matter — which cannot be seen but is, rather, sensed through its gravitational pull — is thought to make up 80 percent of all matter in the universe, according to Space.com.
The filament, discovered by an international team of astrophysicists, connects two huge clusters called Abell 222 and Abell 223, about 2.7 billion light-years away from Earth.
The discovery was reported online Wednesday by the journal Nature.
"This is the first time [a dark matter filament] has been convincingly detected from its gravitational lensing effect," Science quoted astronomer Jörg Dietrich of the University Observatory Munich in Germany as saying.
"It's a resounding confirmation of the standard theory of structure formation of the universe. And it is a confirmation people didn't think was possible at this point."
Dark matter, identified in the 1930s, and its gravitational effect has a profound effect on the shape of the universe, the LA Times wrote.
The Nature article explains dark matter filaments thus:
"Soon after the Big Bang, regions that were slightly denser than others pulled in dark matter, which clumped together and eventually collapsed into flat 'pancakes'. 'Where these pancakes intersect, you get long strands of dark matter, or filaments,' explains Jörg Dietrich… Clusters of galaxies then formed at the nodes of the cosmic web, where these filaments crossed."
Detecting filaments had previously been deemed impossible with current technology.
"I have to say the evidence is pretty strong," the LA Times quotes Manoj Kaplinghat, a theoretical astrophysicist at UC Irvine who was not involved in the study, as saying of the find.
"There have been other claims that have sort of gone away, but this one looks like the best one I've seen. As far as I can tell, this really is the first."
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