Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., hemos recibido una sorprendente noticia de la Agencia Espacial NASA, donde se nos dice que los Telescopios Espaciales Hubble y Chandra, pueden encontrar pista de la existencia de la Materia Oscura que es ingrediente importante en la existencia del Universo.
Utilizando observaciones del Observatorio Telescopio Espacial Hubble y Chandra de rayos X de la NASA, los astrónomos han descubierto que la materia oscura no ralentiza al chocar con ella misma, lo que significa que interactúa consigo misma menos que se pensaba. Los investigadores dicen que este hallazgo se estrecha hacia abajo las opciones para lo que podría ser esta sustancia misteriosa.
La materia oscura es una materia invisible que conforma la mayor parte de la masa del universo. Debido a que la materia oscura no refleja, absorber o emitir luz, sólo se puede remontar indirectamente, tal como midiendo cómo se curva el espacio a través de las lentes gravitacionales, durante el cual la luz de una fuente distante se amplía y distorsionada por la gravedad de la materia oscura .
Para aprender más sobre la materia oscura y la prueba estas teorías, los investigadores estudian de una manera similar a los experimentos sobre la materia visible - al ver lo que sucede cuando se choca con otros objetos. En este caso, los objetos que chocan en observación son los cúmulos de galaxias.
Los investigadores usaron los telescopios espaciales Hubble y Chandra para observar estas colisiones espaciales. En concreto, el telescopio Hubble fue usado para mapear la distribución de las estrellas y la materia oscura después de una colisión, que se remonta a través de su efecto de lente gravitatoria sobre la luz de fondo. El telescopio Chandra se utilizó para detectar la emisión de rayos X de chocar nubes de gas. Los resultados se publican en la edición del 27 de marzo de la revista Science.
Here are images of six different galaxy clusters
taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (blue) and Chandra X-ray Observatory
(pink) in a study of how dark matter in clusters of galaxies behaves when the
clusters collide. A total of 72 large cluster collisions were
studied.
Image Credit:
NASA and ESA
Using observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray
Observatory, astronomers have found that dark matter does not slow down when
colliding with itself, meaning it interacts with itself less than previously
thought. Researchers say this finding narrows down the options for what this
mysterious substance might be.
Dark matter is an invisible matter that makes up most of the mass of the
universe. Because dark matter does not reflect, absorb or emit light, it can
only be traced indirectly by, such as by measuring how it warps space through
gravitational lensing, during which the light from a distant source is magnified
and distorted by the gravity of dark matter.
To learn more about dark matter and test such theories, researchers study it
in a way similar to experiments on visible matter -- by watching what happens
when it bumps into other objects. In this case, the colliding objects under
observation are galaxy clusters.
Researchers used Hubble and Chandra to observe these space collisions.
Specifically, Hubble was used to map the distribution of stars and dark matter
after a collision, which was traced through its gravitational lensing effect on
background light. Chandra was used to detect the X-ray emission from colliding
gas clouds. The results are published in the March 27 edition of the journal
Science.
“Dark matter is an enigma we have long sought to unravel,” said John
Grunsfeld, assistant administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in
Washington. “With the combined capabilities of these great observatories, both
in extended mission, we are ever closer to understanding this cosmic
phenomenon.”
Galaxy clusters are made of three main ingredients: galaxies, gas clouds, and
dark matter. During collisions, the gas clouds surrounding galaxies crash into
each other and slow down or stop. The galaxies are much less affected by the
drag from the gas and, because of the huge gaps between the stars within them,
do not slow each other down.
"We know how gas and stars react to these cosmic crashes and where they
emerge from the wreckage. Comparing how dark matter behaves can help us to
narrow down what it actually is," said the study’s lead author David Harvey of
the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland.
Harvey and his team studied 72 large cluster collisions. The collisions
happened at different times and were viewed from different angles -- some from
the side, and others head-on.
The team found that, like the galaxies, the dark matter continued straight
through the violent collisions without slowing down much. This means dark matter
does not interact with visible particles and flies by other dark matter with
much less interaction than previously thought. Had the dark matter dragged
against other dark matter, the distribution of galaxies would have shifted.
"A previous study had seen similar behavior in the Bullet Cluster," said team
member Richard Massey of Durham University in the United Kingdom. "But it's
difficult to interpret what you're seeing if you have just one example. Each
collision takes hundreds of millions of years, so in a human lifetime we only
get to see one freeze-frame from a single camera angle. Now that we have studied
so many more collisions, we can start to piece together the full movie and
better understand what is going on."
With this discovery, the team has successfully narrowed down the properties
of dark matter. Particle physics theorists now have a smaller set of unknowns to
work around when building their models.
“It is unclear how much we expect dark matter to interact with itself because
dark matter already is going against everything we know,” said Harvey. “We know
from previous observations that it must interact with itself reasonably
weakly.”
Dark matter may have rich and complex properties, and there are still several
other types of interactions to study. These latest results rule out interactions
that create a strong frictional force, causing dark matter to slow down during
collisions.
The team also will study other possible interactions, such as dark matter
particles bouncing off each other like billiard balls and causing dark matter
particles to be ejected from the clouds by collisions or for dark matter blobs
to change shape. The team also is looking to study collisions involving
individual galaxies, which are much more common.
"There are still several viable candidates for dark matter, so the game is
not over. But we are getting nearer to an answer," said Harvey. "These
astronomically large particle colliders are finally letting us glimpse the dark
world all around us, but just out of reach."
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between
NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science
Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is
operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy,
Inc., in Washington.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the
Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls
Chandra's science and flight operations.
For images and more information about the Hubble Space Telescope, visit:
For more Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit:
NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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