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Strange Lump of Dark Matter Shouldn't Exist, But Does
Strange Lump of Dark Matter Shouldn't Exist, But Does
by Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Assistant Managing EditorDate: 05 March 2012 Time: 06:00 AM ET
?1330725971
A composite image of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520 shows the distribution of dark matter, galaxies, and hot gas. The orange picture shows the starlight from galaxies, while the blue picture shows the location of most of the mass in the cluster, which is dominated by dark matter (the dark-matter distribution is derived from gravitational lensing measurements). The green image shows regions of hot gas, and the natural-color photo of the galaxies was taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii.
CREDIT: NASA, ESA, CFHT, CXO, M.J. Jee (University of California, Davis), and A. Mahdavi (San Francisco State University)
A lonely clump of dark matter 2.4 billion light-years from Earth is confounding scientists by its mere presence, researchers say. Contrary to popular astronomy theories, the invisible stuff appears to have been left behind in space after a cluster of galaxies collided.
While the fundamental nature of invisible dark matter remains mysterious, scientists think they have a pretty good idea of how it behaves. For one thing, most galaxies are thought to reside inside larger masses of dark matter, and the two are thought to stay attached, even after cosmic collisions.
Yet this time, it appears the galaxies may have left their dark matter cocoons in the dust.
"This result is a puzzle," astronomer James Jee of the University of California, Davis, said in a statement. "Dark matter is not behaving as predicted, and it's not obviously clear what is going on. Theories of galaxy formation and dark matter must explain what we are seeing."
....
by Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Assistant Managing EditorDate: 05 March 2012 Time: 06:00 AM ET
?1330725971
A composite image of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520 shows the distribution of dark matter, galaxies, and hot gas. The orange picture shows the starlight from galaxies, while the blue picture shows the location of most of the mass in the cluster, which is dominated by dark matter (the dark-matter distribution is derived from gravitational lensing measurements). The green image shows regions of hot gas, and the natural-color photo of the galaxies was taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii.
CREDIT: NASA, ESA, CFHT, CXO, M.J. Jee (University of California, Davis), and A. Mahdavi (San Francisco State University)
A lonely clump of dark matter 2.4 billion light-years from Earth is confounding scientists by its mere presence, researchers say. Contrary to popular astronomy theories, the invisible stuff appears to have been left behind in space after a cluster of galaxies collided.
While the fundamental nature of invisible dark matter remains mysterious, scientists think they have a pretty good idea of how it behaves. For one thing, most galaxies are thought to reside inside larger masses of dark matter, and the two are thought to stay attached, even after cosmic collisions.
Yet this time, it appears the galaxies may have left their dark matter cocoons in the dust.
"This result is a puzzle," astronomer James Jee of the University of California, Davis, said in a statement. "Dark matter is not behaving as predicted, and it's not obviously clear what is going on. Theories of galaxy formation and dark matter must explain what we are seeing."
....
More at http://www.space.com/14773-strange-dark-matter-colliding-galaxies.html
8 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
I don't really understand what's going on here....I've lost touch with current theories although I used to try to keep up with them as a hobby.
They are observing something that doesn't fit the theory of when, where and why it should exist?
