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Dark matter may find it tougher to hide in the universe thanks to a team of international researchers. The team has developed the Dark Energy Survey (DES), a map of the distribution of dark matter in the universe. The DES is a cosmological galaxy survey that will map approximately an eighth of the visible sky.
The primary aim of the DES is to better characterize dark energy – the source of the observed accelerated expansion of the universe. One of the ways of doing this is through studying the distribution and evolution of another scientific mystery: dark matter. Scientists estimate that ordinary atomic matter makes up only one-fifth of the total mass in the universe. The remaining mass is dark – “dark” because it does not absorb or emit light. To indirectly detect dark matter, the scientists constructed a “mass map” using weak gravitational lensing shear measurements made by the DES. Scientists need a precise measurement of all the matter in the universe and where it is located to perform cosmological experiments accurately.Image credit: Image courtesy Vinu Vikraman / Argonne National Laboratory
