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Cosmic bursts unveil Universe’s missing matter. Read on 
If we add up all of the ‘normal’ matter we can see in galaxies, the total comes up short of what’s predicted by our models of the cosmos
Cosmic bursts unveil Universe’s missing matter. Read on If we add up all of the ‘normal’ matter we can see in galaxies, the total comes up short of what’s predicted by our models of the cosmos
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This has puzzled astronomers for years. They suspected that the missing matter was scattered in between galaxies. They had never been able to directly detect this matter—until now. http://www.icrar.org/MissingMatter
This has puzzled astronomers for years. They suspected that the missing matter was scattered in between galaxies. They had never been able to directly detect this matter—until now. http://www.icrar.org/MissingMatter
3/ Astronomers used fast radio bursts (brief flashes of energy that last about a millisecond) to measure this missing matter. Artist’s impression by @ESO /M. Kornmesser
4/ They pinpointed six radio bursts and measured the distance to the galaxies they were located in. They then calculated how much these radio bursts were delayed reaching us. Credit: ICRAR
5/ Since each atom they encounter as they cross the Universe slows them down, they provide a measure for the amount of matter in between the distant galaxies and us. Credit: ICRAR
6/ The team used the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope to detect the radio bursts, and then used optical telescopes, including our Very Large Telescope #VLT to find how far their host galaxies were.
Credit: @ESO /M. Claro
Credit: @ESO /M. Claro
7/ The VLT was key to helping astronomers measure this missing matter: it made it possible for the team to measure the distances to four of the six distant galaxies.
Credit: @ESO /Sylvain Oberti
Credit: @ESO /Sylvain Oberti
8/ The international team involved in the discovery included astronomers from Australia, the United States and Chile.
9/ Australia joined ESO in a strategic partnership just three years ago, allowing Australian astronomers to fully participate in activities related to ESO’s current observatories. https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1721/
10. The missing matter in this case is baryonic or ‘normal’ matter—like the protons and neutrons that make up stars, planets and you. It’s different from dark matter, which remains elusive and accounts for about 85% of the total matter in the Universe.
