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The dark side of the universe
The ghostly blue clouds in the center of the Abell 1689 galaxy cluster show where Dan Coe and his team think dark matter is hiding. Abell 1689 is home to about 1,000 galaxies and trillions of stars. Credit: NASA, ESA, and Dan Coe (NASA JPL/Caltech and STScI) If seeing is believing, then we shouldn’t believe in most of our universe. We can see the sun, other stars and faraway objects that glow in the dark. With the right tools, we can even see t…
Dark matter search turns up empty
A blue cloud of dark, or invisible, matter surrounds the swirl of the Milky Way galaxy in this illustration. A new study suggests our galaxy’s dark matter may have a shape other than a sphere. Credit: L. Calçada/ESO They say that what you see is what you get. But if you’re an astronomer studying a particular gaggle of stars, what you see might leave you scratching your head. A team of astronomers in Chile recently tracked the motion of about 40…
Mapping the invisible
This map shows where dark matter is hiding. The mysterious stuff — invisible to the naked eye and scientific instruments — is depicted as white blobs. Credit: Van Waerbeke, Heymans, and CFHTLens collaboration Most maps show places you can visit and how to get there. Most maps, however, were not made by astronomers — physicists who study stars and galaxies far, far, far away. At a recent meeting in Texas, three teams of these scientists presente…
Strange Universe: The Stuff of Darkness
It isn’t easy to study darkness. Try it. Next time you’re outside on a clear night, look up. You might see the winking lights of an airplane, the glow of an orbiting satellite, or even the bright trail of a meteor. Of course, you’ll see lots of stars. What about all the space between the stars? Is something hidden out there in the darkness? Or is it merely empty? Is there anything in the dark areas between distant galaxi…
Dark Collision
Scientists have long suspected that invisible stuff called dark matter holds galaxies together as they whiz through space. But, because no one can see dark matter, they haven’t been able to prove that it exists. Recently, astronomers spotted a rare event: two large clusters of galaxies that crashed into each other as they cruised the cosmos. By studying the collision carefully, scientists now say that they have found the first evidence of…
An invisible cosmic bridge
It’s impossible to see with the naked eye, but astronomers say a bridge made of dark matter connects two galaxy clusters. This picture shows hot gas around and between the two clusters, Abell 222 (blob at top) and Abell 223 (bottom blob). The yellow is the hottest part of the gas, where the galaxies reside, and the red is cooler.Credit: ESA/ XMM-Newton/ EPIC/ ESO (J. Dietrich)/ SRON (N. Werner)/ MPE (A. Finoguenov) Abell 222 is a giant group of…
Teacher’s Questions for The Dark Side of the Universe
SCIENCE Before Reading: What is our universe made up of? Do you know what dark matter or dark energy are? Can you make some guesses about what they might be? What is gravity? During Reading: What is “star stuff”? Name a few examples of star stuff. What does the “dark” in dark matter and dark energy refer to? What is the majority of our universe made up of: dark energy, dark matter, or star stuff? How much of our universe is made up of sta…
A light delay
Researchers stored yellow light for more than a second, by means of an imprint left in some of the atoms (dark blue) in a cloud of ultracold sodium atoms (gray). The beam that emerges (bottom) has the same properties but is weaker than the original beam ( Anne Goodsell It’s easy to imagine catching a ball, holding it for a moment and then throwing it in the air again. It’s also easy to imagine scooping up a handful of wa…
Teen Brains, Under Construction
Even though adults were once teenagers, they often treat teens like they’re from Mars. Many times, teens feel they’d fit in better on another planet. The feelings are so widespread that bookstores are full of titles such as “Now I Know Why Tigers Eat Their Young: Surviving a New Generation of Teenagers” and “Help! My Family Is Driving Me Crazy: A Survival Guide for Teenagers.” Relationships matter a lot…
Question Sheet: Strange Universe: The Stuff of Darkness
SCIENCE Before reading: What is matter? What do you think might lie hidden in the darkness between stars? Name three things studied by scientists that your eye can’t see directly. During reading: What is the difference between ordinary matter and dark matter? Explain why the force of gravity of the sun is greater than the force of gravity of a car. If dark matter can’t be seen, how do we know that it might…
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