Discover the first traces of dark matter

2001/03/23 Roa Zubia, Guillermo - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Astronomia

Most of the matter in the universe is not seen. Astronomers have deduced this data by observations and calculations. Around the young stars of our galaxy there is a large cloud of gas and old stars. This gigantic field of gravity that generates the whole of all bodies gives the system its integrity. However, the influence of the area should be very weak in stars far from the center of the galaxy, but not so. The best explanation scientists have is that of dark matter, that is, we cannot see 90% of the matter in the galaxy. Analyzing this matter is a huge challenge for them.

According to the most widespread theory, this matter is a star with half the size of the sun. These white dwarfs, in addition to being very common, have a suitable mass and speed to be the origin of dark matter. You just need to find it. The problem arises when scientists seek a wrong color. These white dwarfs emit blue and not red light, as believed so far.

A group of astronomers at Berkeley University of California have started their career with the four-meter White telescope. The telescope is located in Chile, on Cerro Tololo Inter-American. They have taken 200 digital photographs of a galaxy fragment in which they have identified 38 unknown white dwarfs. In total they analyzed 12% of the space. Referring to the size of the cloud of old gases and stars, California scientists estimate that they have seen about 3% of dark matter.

However, astronomers believe that this result must be confirmed, as instead of some of these white dwarfs being there, they may be going through the cloud. To have the confirmation of this suspicion we will have to wait a couple of years.