Scientists know well about a fifth of everything in the world resides in the shape of dark matter, something we can not see explicitly. We assume that dark matter may be present because of the directions the galaxies travel, which shows they have a lot more mass than we can detect. But we're naming the residual mass unexplained dark matter.
So how are you studying something that you can't see? New methods and highly sensitive hardware to measure distant galaxies' dynamics can be used for the next wave of dark matter experiments. But for now, a tiny group of Swinburne University of Technology scientists has come up with a means of utilizing existing telescopes to "sense" dark matter.
The methodology operates by searching at the gravitational impact, rather than the supposed objects themselves, in dark matter. "It's like looking at a flag to try to know how much wind there is," lead author Pol Gurri explained in a statement. "You cannot see the wind, but the flag's motion tells you how strongly the wind is blowing."
Gravitational lensing on the move
The thesis uses a tool called weak gravitational lensing, in which distant galaxies are detected while waiting for another galaxy to cross between us and it. As this occurs, owing to its gravity, the intermediate galaxy twists the light waves from the far universe.
Associate Professor Edward Taylor, who was also involved in the study, explained that the view of something behind it would be only marginally blurred by dark matter. According to Taylor, the result is a little like reading through a wine glass base newspaper.
This approach has been used to explore dark matter previously. But highly accurate telescopes, which calculate the shape of distant galaxies, are typically needed. The creativity of the team was to look at how, instead, galaxies spin.
Since the experts know how to transfer stars and gas inside galaxies, Gurri said they already "know approximately" what the universe is meant to look like.
He added the team would find out how much dark matter it will take to justify what we see by calculating how warped the accurate galaxy pictures are.
Do they need better, updated telescopes?
This ensures that still older telescopes will be used to 'sense' dark matter in a more detailed manner than if they were not aiming at rotation, such as the ANU 2.3 m Telescope in Australia.
"We hope to get a better view of where dark matter is, and what part it plays in how galaxies shape, with our new way of seeing dark matter," Gurri said.
Future space projects, such as NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the Euclid Space Telescope of the European Space Agency, are partially planned to allow observations of this type dependent on the outlines of hundreds of millions of galaxies.
Taylor said his team could make a real contribution to these global projects, only by thinking about the issue in a particular way since they have seen that with a very tiny telescope installed in the 1980s.
ALSO READ: Astronomers Catch Radio Signals Emanating from the Milky Way; Where Is the Source Coming From?
Check out more news and information on Space on Science Times.
