Hubble's greatest discoveries: dark matter
![Hubble allowed scientists to create this 3D map of dark matter – the distance from Earth increases from left to right © NASA, ESA and R. Massey (California Institute of Technology) Hubble allowed scientists to create this 3D map of dark matter – the distance from Earth increases from left to right © NASA, ESA and R. Massey (California Institute of Technology)](https://c02.purpledshub.com/uploads/sites/41/2020/04/3D_map_of_dark_matter_as_seen_by_Hubble-c98e434.jpg)
这张照片显示我们的存在can’t see: ‘dark matter’. The galaxies, stars and planets that we can see make up just 15 per cent of the Universe’s matter. The rest - the other 85 per cent – is dark matter and it neither emits nor absorbs any known wavelength of light.
“With this map, we saw for the first time where dark matteris,” says Durham University physicistDr Richard Massey. To construct it, half a million galaxies were observed by theHubble Space Telescopeand ground-based telescopes.
“When light travels across the Universe, it passes through all the intervening dark matter on its way to us, leaving a tell-tale imprint of its journey. You can’t see such faraway, faint galaxies from Earth because the atmosphere blurs the detail. This is why we needed Hubble,” explains Massey.
The dark matter bends the light in a ‘gravitational lensing’ effect, making the galaxies appear distorted. By observing this, it’s possible to deduce where dark matter lies. Such a map is fundamental to understanding the Universe’s structure, as dark matter acts as ‘scaffolding’, along which galaxies are assembled.
“When the first explorers reached the American West, they sat on a ridge and tried to understand the lie of the land. We were doing the same thing on a new frontier,” says Massey.
Discover more about the Hubble Space Telescope:
- 10 of Hubble’s greatest discoveries
- Beautiful Hubble Space Telescope images you probably haven’t seen before
- 10 future space missions to look forward to
- Who really discovered Hubble’s Law?
FromBBC Sky at Night Magazine:
- Hubble at 30: three decades of the famous space telescope
- 'How we serviced Hubble': Mike Massimino reveals all
- How Hubble’s successor the James Webb Space Telescope will observe the Universe
- Astronaut Kathy Sullivan on launching the famous space telescope
- What was wrong with Hubble’s mirror, and how was it fixed?
- Radio Astronomy Podcast: 30 years of the incredible space telescope
- How did the space telescope come about?
- What Hubble's launch meant to me, as an amateur astronomer
- How Hubble changed our view of the Universe
- Why did astronauts service the Hubble Space Telescope?
- How the Hubble Space Telescope is used to study exoplanets
- A history of the Hubble Space Telescope