New Dark Matter Map Shows the Universe in Detail

A new, highly detailed map powered by JWST data reveals the invisible dark matter structure of our universe. By tracking how gravity bends light, researchers mapped out where invisible mass is located. The contours show regions of equal density and the blue colors mark the highest concentrations of dark matter in this 0.54-square-degree section of sky. Credit: Dr Gavin Leroy/COSMOS-Webb collaboration

Scientists using JWST have created the largest and highest-resolution map of dark matter ever, shedding light on the universe’s evolution.

Scientists are shining a brighter light on dark matter thanks to a new high-resolution map, unveiling the invisible material that shapes everything we see.

Using James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) imaging from the COSMOS-Web survey, a team of researchers created a high-resolution map of the universe’s dark matter over a contiguous 0.54-square-degree area of the sky — the largest map of its kind. The new map, created by looking at how the gravity from this invisible matter warps space around it, has twice the detail of its predecessors, revealing galaxy clusters, strands of dark matter, and even hidden faint galaxy groups that were previously unseen. The team’s findings were published Jan. 26 in Nature Astronomy.

“The map shows the dark matter backbone of the universe in much finer detail than ever before in the COSMOS-Web field,” Diana Scognamiglio, a cosmologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and co-lead author of the study, tells Astronomy. “It reveals where dark matter is concentrated in galaxy clusters, how those clusters are connected, and where large empty regions lie. For the first time over a wide area, we can see the small-scale structure of the cosmic web and even detect mass concentrations that were not visible in earlier maps.”

(Source: astronomy.com)