Shining a Light on Dark Matter - NASA Science

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Most of the universe is made of stuff we have never seen. Its gravity drives normal matter (gas and dust) to collect and build up into stars, galaxies, and massive galaxy clusters. Visible matter reveals itself by shining brightly, but astronomers detect dark matter by its gravitational influence on the light we see. By looking at the area around massive galaxy clusters, astronomers can identify warped background galaxies gravitationally lensed by the cluster and reverse-engineer their distortions. Mathematical models of these results shed light on the location and properties of the densest concentrations of matter in the cluster, both visible (normal matter) and invisible (dark matter, indicated by the bluish-purple glow).

Lower left corner: Hubble sits looking toward the upper-right corner where there is a spiral galaxy. Between the two is an image of a large galaxy cluster. Lines drawn from the spiral at upper-right to Hubble illustrate the gravitational lens created by the galaxy cluster.

Large galaxy clusters contain both dark matter and normal matter. The immense gravity of all this material warps the space around the cluster, causing the light from objects located behind the cluster to be distorted and magnified. This phenomenon is called gravitational lensing. This sketch shows paths of light from a distant galaxy that is being gravitationally lensed by a foreground cluster.

NASA & ESA

Galaxy Cluster Cl 0024+17 (ZwCl 0024+1652)

The massive galaxy cluster Cl 0024+17 (ZwCl 0024+1652) reveals the bent and amplified light of gravitationally lensed, distant galaxies. The left view is in visible light with odd-looking blue arcs among the yellowish galaxies. These are the magnified and distorted images of galaxies located far behind the cluster. The right image holds added blue shading that indicates the location of invisible dark matter. The shape and position of the gravitationally lensed galaxies we see in the left-hand image mathematically requires the presence of this dark matter.

Astronomers Find Ring of Dark Matter With Hubble Space Telescope

Two views from Hubble of the massive galaxy cluster Cl 0024+17 (ZwCl 0024+1652).
NASA, ESA, M.J. Jee and H. Ford (Johns Hopkins University)
Abell 1689

Astronomers using Hubble were able to take advantage of the giant magnifying lens created by the enormous galaxy cluster Abell 1689’s gravity to not only map the cluster’s dark matter, but also probe the nature of dark energy. Their calculations, when combined with data from other methods, significantly increased the accuracy of dark energy measurements. Scientists aren’t clear about what dark energy is, but they do know that it makes up a majority of the universe.

Cosmic Lens Used to Probe Dark Energy for First Time

Abell 1689 is an immense cluster of galaxies located 2.2 billion light-years away. Astronomers map the cluster’s dark matter by plotting the arcs produced by light from background galaxies that are warped by the foreground cluster’s gravitational field.
NASA, ESA, E. Jullo (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), P. Natarajan (Yale University), and J.-P. Kneib (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, CNRS, France); Acknowledgment: H. Ford and N. Benetiz (Johns Hopkins University), and T. Broadhurst (Tel Aviv University)

Caption: Astronomers using Hubble found small, dense concentrations of dark matter that bend and magnify light much more strongly than expected.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; Lead Producer: Paul Morris

Hubble e-book

Hubble Focus: Dark Universe

Hubble Focus is a series of e-books that dive deeper into specific topics in astronomy that have been forever changed by Hubble’s explorations. "Hubble Focus: Dark Universe" is the fifth book in the series, highlighting the mission’s recent discoveries about dark matter and dark energy.

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E-book cover for Hubble Focus: Dark Universe

NASA

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