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Economic Times
17-06-2025
- Science
- Economic Times
This is how astronomers have found universe's missing ordinary matter
Astronomers have used fast radio bursts (FRBs) to locate the universe's missing ordinary matter. This matter had not been detected before because it was too spread out. Using 69 FRBs, the team measured matter between galaxies. Their findings agree with predictions and may help map the universe's evolution. An artist's conception depicts warm, thin gas in a vast region between galaxies - called the intergalactic medium, in this handout illustration image obtained by REUTERS. Blue highlights denser regions of the cosmic web, transitioning to redder light for void areas. Courtesy of Jack Madden, IllustrisTNG, Ralf Konietzka, Liam Connor/CfA/Handout via REUTERS/Illustration Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Ordinary Matter Hidden in Space FRBs Reveal Matter in Intergalactic Medium Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Observations and Measurements Findings FAQs Scientists have used fast radio bursts FRBs ) to detect normal matter that was previously missing from the universe. This matter is not dark matter but baryonic matter made of years, scientists searched for ordinary matter that should exist in the universe. This matter is not dark matter, which does not interact with light. Instead, it is normal atomic matter, also known as baryonic matter. It was missing from observation because it was thinly spread between matter lies in two main places. Some of it floats in the space between galaxies. The rest surrounds galaxies in large cloud-like halos. Until now, it could not be detected directly with used fast radio bursts (FRBs) to locate this matter. FRBs are very short but powerful radio signals. They are produced far away in space. Some last only milliseconds but release as much energy as the sun does in these bursts travel through space, they pass through matter. That matter slows the signal. Scientists used this delay to measure how much material lies in the path. This method works even when the matter is too faint to see team used 69 FRBs with known distances from Earth. These signals came from as far as 9.1 billion light-years away. Most of these bursts were detected using a network of 110 radio telescopes at Caltech's Owens Valley Radio in Hawaii and California helped measure how far the FRBs had traveled. Other bursts were found by Australia's ASKAP telescope network, which is good at locating team found that 76% of ordinary matter is in the space between galaxies. About 15% is in halos around galaxies. The rest, about 9%, is inside galaxies. These results match what earlier computer models had discovery helps scientists understand how galaxies form and grow. Future tools like the DSA-2000 telescope may detect more FRBs and improve these are short bursts of radio waves that release large amounts of energy. They last milliseconds and come from distant parts of the found most missing matter in the intergalactic medium and galaxy halos using fast radio bursts as a detection tool.
Straits Times
16-06-2025
- Science
- Straits Times
Astronomers locate universe's 'missing' matter
An artist's conception depicts warm, thin gas in a vast region between galaxies - called the intergalactic medium, in this handout illustration image obtained by REUTERS. Blue highlights denser regions of the cosmic web, transitioning to redder light for void areas. Courtesy of Jack Madden, IllustrisTNG, Ralf Konietzka, Liam Connor/CfA/Handout via REUTERS/Illustration The Deep Synoptic Array (DSA), a network of 110 radio telescopes, point to the sky at Caltech's Owen Valley Radio Observatory near Bishop, California, U.S., in this undated photograph released on June 16, 2025. Vikram Ravi/Caltech/OVRO/Handout via REUTERS WASHINGTON - The universe has two kinds of matter. There is invisible dark matter, known only because of its gravitational effects on a grand scale. And there is ordinary matter such as gas, dust, stars, planets and earthly things like cookie dough and canoes. Scientists estimate that ordinary matter makes up only about 15% of all matter, but have long struggled to document where all of it is located, with about half unaccounted for. With the help of powerful bursts of radio waves emanating from 69 locations in the cosmos, researchers now have found the "missing" matter. It was hiding primarily as thinly distributed gas spread out in the vast expanses between galaxies and was detected thanks to the effect the matter has on the radio waves traveling through space, the researchers said. This tenuous gas comprises the intergalactic medium, sort of a fog between galaxies. Scientists previously had determined the total amount of ordinary matter using a calculation involving light observed that was left over from the Big Bang event roughly 13.8 billion years ago that initiated the universe. But they could not actually find half of this matter. "So the question we've been grappling with was: Where is it hiding? The answer appears to be: in a diffuse wispy cosmic web, well away from galaxies," said Harvard University astronomy professor Liam Connor, lead author of the study published on Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy. The researchers found that a smaller slice of the missing matter resides in the halos of diffuse material surrounding galaxies, including our Milky Way. Ordinary matter is composed of baryons, which are the subatomic particles protons and neutrons needed to build atoms. "People, planets and stars are made of baryons. Dark matter, on the other hand, is a mysterious substance that makes up the bulk of the matter in the universe. We do not know what new particle or substance makes up dark matter. We know exactly what the ordinary matter is, we just didn't know where it was," Connor said. So how did so much ordinary matter end up in the middle of nowhere? Vast amounts of gas are ejected from galaxies when massive stars explode in supernovas or when supermassive black holes inside galaxies "burp," expelling material after consuming stars or gas. "If the universe were a more boring place, or the laws of physics were different, you might find that ordinary matter would all fall into galaxies, cool down, form stars, until every proton and neutron were a part of a star. But that's not what happens," Connor said. Thus, these violent physical processes are sloshing ordinary matter around across immense distances and consigning it to the cosmic wilderness. This gas is not in its usual state but rather in the form of plasma, with its electrons and protons separated. The mechanism used to detect and measure the missing ordinary matter involved phenomena called fast radio bursts, or FRBs - powerful pulses of radio waves emanating from faraway points in the universe. While their exact cause remains mysterious, a leading hypothesis is that they are produced by highly magnetized neutron stars, compact stellar embers left over after a massive star dies in a supernova explosion. As light in radio wave frequencies travels from the source of the FRBs to Earth, it becomes dispersed into different wavelengths, just as a prism turns sunlight into a rainbow. The degree of this dispersion depends on how much matter is in the light's path, providing the mechanism for pinpointing and measuring matter where it otherwise would remain unfound. Scientists used radio waves traveling from 69 FRBs, 39 of which were discovered using a network of 110 telescopes located at Caltech's Owens Valley Radio Observatory near Bishop, California, called the Deep Synoptic Array. The remaining 30 were discovered using other telescopes. The FRBs were located at distances up to 9.1 billion light-years from Earth, the farthest of these on record. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). With all the ordinary matter now accounted for, the researchers were able to determine its distribution. About 76% resides in intergalactic space, about 15% in galaxy halos and the remaining 9% concentrated within galaxies, primarily as stars or gas. "We can now move on to even more important mysteries regarding the ordinary matter in the universe," Connor said. "And beyond that: what is the nature of dark matter and why is it so difficult to measure directly?" REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Associated Press
07-02-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Madden's 18 lead Abilene Christian past Utah Tech 86-72
The AP Top 25 men's college basketball poll is back every week throughout the season! Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here. ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) — Hunter Jack Madden's 18 points helped Abilene Christian defeat Utah Tech 86-72 on Thursday night. Madden added three steals for the Wildcats (10-13, 2-6 Western Athletic Conference). Quion Williams shot 7 of 14 from the field and 4 of 5 from the free-throw line to add 18 points. Leonardo Bettiol shot 5 of 8 from the field and 3 of 4 from the free-throw line to finish with 13 points. Beon Riley led the Trailblazers (6-17, 2-6) in scoring, finishing with 17 points, 12 rebounds and four assists. Utah Tech also got 12 points and two steals from Noa Gonsalves. Samuel Ariyibi had nine points and three blocks. The loss was the Trailblazers' sixth straight. NEXT UP Both teams play Southern Utah next, Abilene Christian on the road on Saturday and Utah Tech on the road on Thursday. ___
