The missing material of the universe may have been found.
Astronomers believe that regular matter-that is to say what is not dark matter – represents approximately 15% of the total mass of the universe. However, for years, the researchers have encountered a problem when they try to quantify it: they could not find about half of this “normal” material in the stars, galaxies and other space structures that we can see.
But now, a large international team of researchers has found that diffuse gas hydrogen surrounding most galaxies is much more extensive than scientists thought it before – so extensive, in fact, that it could explain the majority of the missing material in the universe, the team says.
“The measures certainly comply with the search for all the gas (missing)”, co-author of the study Simone FerraroAn astronomer at the University of California in Berkeley, said in a statement. The study is currently available on the Arxiv pre -printed server And undergoes a peer review for the publication in the review Physical Review Letters.
Hunting for missing material
For their survey, the researchers used data from the black energy spectroscopic instrument (DESI) at the National Observatory of Kitt Peak in Arizona, as well as the Atacama cosmology telescope in Chile.
Using the observations desi, the team stacked images of approximately 7 million galaxies to measure halos with ionized hydrogen weaknesses on the edges of galaxies. These halos are generally too low to be seen by normal methods. So instead, the team has measured how the gas has dropped or brightened up from the cosmic microwave – the remaining radiation of the Big Bang This is widespread throughout the universe.
The team also discovered that ionized hydrogen clouds formed ghostly and almost invisible filaments between galaxies. If it connects most galaxies in the universe, this cosmic web would easily extend far enough to take into account the material previously not detected.
Black holes in service
Discovery can also change what we know black hole behavior. Scientists initially thought that supermassive black holes in the heart of most galaxies spit only gas jets at the start of their life cycle. But the presence of such extensive diffuse gas clouds indicates that these black holes probably become active more frequently than what did not think about it previously.
“One of the hypotheses is that (black holes) light up and go out from time to time in what is called a service cycle”, author of the first study Boryana Hadzhiyskasaid an astronomer at the University of California in Berkeley, in the press release.
The next step will be to integrate new measures into existing cosmological models. “There are a large number of people interested in using our measures to carry out a very in -depth analysis that includes this gas,” said Hadzhiyska.