Dark Matter in a Simulated Universe
Explanation:
Is our universe haunted?
It might look that way on this
dark matter map.
The gravity of unseen
dark matter
is the leading explanation for why
galaxies rotate so fast,
why galaxies
orbit clusters so fast,
why gravitational lenses so strongly deflect light,
and why
visible matter is distributed as it is both
in the local universe
and
on the cosmic
microwave background.
The featured image from the
American Museum of Natural Historys
Hayden Planetarium
Space Show
Dark Universe
highlights one example of how pervasive dark matter might haunt our universe.
In this frame from a
detailed computer simulation,
complex filaments of dark matter, shown in black, are strewn
about the universe like
spider webs, while the relatively rare clumps of familiar
baryonic
matter are colored orange.
These simulations are good statistical matches to astronomical observations.
In what is perhaps a scarier turn of events,
dark matter -- although quite strange and in an
unknown form --
is no longer thought to be the strangest source of
gravity in the universe.
That honor now falls to
dark energy, a more uniform source of
repulsive
gravity
that seems to now dominate the expansion of the entire universe.
Not only Halloween:
Today is Dark Matter Day.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
