Hubble reveals ghostly ring of dark matter

MSNBC ^ | May 15, 2007

[Hadean]

Astronomers have discovered an enormous, ghostly ring of dark matter 5 billion light years away — the most blatant evidence to date for the existence of a mysterious substance hidden throughout the universe.

Dark matter makes up a vast majority of gravity-exerting mass in the universe, while only about 10 percent is matter we can see and touch. If dark matter didn't exist, scientists say, galaxies like the Milky Way would have already flown apart from a severe lack of gravitational "glue."

Researchers pointed the aging but powerful Hubble Space Telescope toward a cluster of galaxies known as cluster ZwCl0024+1652. At first glance, the then-unknown ring looked like a ripple in a pond over the twinkling galactic cluster. Story continues below ↓advertisement

"I was annoyed when I saw the ring because I thought it was an artifact," said M. James Jee of Johns Hopkins University.

But it wasn't a glitch.

The more Jee and others tried to remove the ring by tweaking the data, the more the ring-like anomaly stuck out like sore thumb. "It took more than a year to convince myself that the ring was real," Jee said. "I've looked at a number of clusters and I haven't seen anything like this."

Because so much dark matter resides in the ring, astronomers said, it bends the light around it to create the ripple effect — dark matter's calling card. The findings were announced at a NASA press conference today.

The ring, 2.6-million light-years wide, formed when two huge clusters of galaxies slammed together in a head-on collision roughly 1 to 2 billion years ago, puffing the mysterious matter outward, the astronomers figure. If the galactic hit-and-run had occurred outside of Earth's line-of-sight, the result might look more like an oval.

[ichabod1]

I thought that was an upgrade of this one to be called the Webb-Hubble Space Telescope.

[Lou L]

if you visit my website you can virtually meet thousands of galactobabes who just would love to meet YOU.

Yes, but given the speed at which light (and other electronic transmissions) travel, when you see your "galactobabe's" photo on MySpace, you're only seeing them as they looked 200 million years ago!

[ZULU]

The Klingons would retaliate.

[DannyTN]

"How do we know what we look like from 5 billion light years away?"

From 5 billion light years away, we look like a gleam in God's eye.

[neverdem]

thanks, bfl

[MeanWestTexan]

No idea.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I wish I could remember who has the Space PING list, because this is a good one.

[frithguild]

The more Jee and others tried to remove the ring by tweaking the data, the more the ring-like anomaly stuck out like sore thumb.

You try scrubbing and soaking, but you still get

[Larry Lucido]

Unless it was something else that bent the light.

A Kinko's fax machine? :-)

[Tulsa Ramjet]

Sorry about that, got knocked off. A sketch of the luminous part of a galaxy surrounded by a much bigger halo of invisible dark matter. We detect the presence of the dark matter by its gravitational effect on stars and gas within galaxies and on other galaxies. But because it emits little or no light, we cannot see it directly. We do not yet know what the dark matter actually consists of. I believe Dark Matter, once understood, will be the key to universe travel. As we all know, our current capabilities of space ship propellent will not allow us to properly reach light year goals, or to go to possible inhabitable planets. All energy sources are developed on earth and I think that is a mistake. This idea came to me in a dream. What is one area that we have not looked for alternative energy sources get us where we would like to go? Space. Dark matter is dark energy, and powerful energy that keeps solar systems together. I propose we embark on understanding this capability, develop a multi, human-generational space team that will perpetuate itself in space as it travels to other worlds and possibilities. They would have to rear their replacement platoon to take over as they aged. The eggs would be in hibernation until rearing would occur. This would probably begin around sixty years old. Their life on the ship would be their world. Just like the monarch butterfly that flies from the north to the south. It is not just one butterfly that does it, but multiple generations going down, and coming back. comments? (if anyone steals my idea for a book, movie, t.v., I'll sue you, because it is already in the can.

[Larry Lucido]

remove the ring by tweaking the data, the more the ring-like anomaly stuck out like sore thumb.

If one's thumb is sore and has a dark ring that can't be removed, perhaps one should watch where he's sticking it.

[Hadean]

Ping

[Tulsa Ramjet]

I remember reading a sci fi story of a planet about to get annihilated by another smaller, incoming white planet. Everyone on the planet that was about to get hit was scrambling to get aboard thousands of rockets to take off. Just before impact of the white planet, all the rockets left and headed out to space. the next scene was a boy yelling to his friend who caught his baseball throw. He said, “hows the old mitt?” The other boy replied, “Not bad, but a lot of dust flew off of it.” He then took the white baseball and threw it back to his friend.”

[LeoWindhorse]

great wallpaper ! thanks

[Captain Rhino]

If dark matter didn't exist, scientists say, galaxies like the Milky Way would have already flown apart from a severe lack of gravitational "glue."

IOW, there is not enough apparent mass in the visible components of the galaxies to create the gravity needed to keep individual systems from escaping from their respective galactic centers. Since observation shows them not flying apart, there must be something that is not visible that is creating the gravitational effects needed to hold the galaxies together. Not only that, there has to be a whole bunch of the elusive, non-observable stuff. In fact, to get the observed effects, about 90% of the total mass of the universe has to be made of the stuff.

Picking up on a comment in another posting, since the stuff is real (has all the characteristics of matter (except visibility) to include mass), it can be detected by the distortions it causes in the straight line propagation of light. Yet no distortions of light have been detected within our solar system. One might infer there is no dark matter present. Yet the stuff makes up 9 out of every 10 parts of the universe. Why is the SOL system apparently exempt? In fact, what does the supposed presence of dark matter do to all the pre-dark matter calculations used to work out the mass and and orbits of the planets? Make them null and void? Just get subsumed in the gravitational constant?

Guess we will have to stay tuned for episode two.

[ontap]

“We do not yet know what the dark matter actually consists of.”

It is made up of the DNC’s soul>

[uglybiker]

I thought that was an upgrade of this one to be called the Webb-Hubble Space Telescope.

That would be the Webster-Hubble Telescope. It is able to obtain vast amounts of information about our universe and keep it stored securely in its pants.

[I see my hands]

That's not dark matter, it's a ring of man made global warming and it's headed our way!

[azhenfud]

Hubble van Gogh?

[Fester Chugabrew]

Are there earthen materials that can withstand the forces of dark matter? It seems any craft that would carry such travelers would have to originate here. OTOH, there may be forces and materials inherent in this planet that allow enhancements to facilitate intergalactic travel, nuclear energy among them.

Meanwhile, who would volunteer for a one way space trip? I can think of a few people I might like to volunteer; two in particular whose body weight is, unfortunately, prohibitive of space travel as we know it, and whose re-entry into the atmosphere may prove a threat to the planet in general.