Through a lens, darkly: a dark matter map of the Universe

Simulations tell us of a web-like Universe but it's hard to explore this topic observationally because we can't see dark matter. But the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) Lensing Survey has made the first large scale map of dark matter. On the first day of AAS #219, the CFHTLenS survey shared their results with us.aCategories: Current EventsTags: astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, dark matter, galaxies, galaxy clusters, gravitational lensing(Click to read more...)

This post references the press release from the CFHT Lensing Survey and AAS #219 Oral Presentations #130.01 and #130.02

Catherine Heymans, CFHTLenS Collaboration, “The CFHT Lensing Survey,” 1/9/12
Ludovic Van Waerbeke, CFHTLenS Collaboration, “Mapping of Dark Matter in Large Scale Structures,”, 1/9/12

We’ve known about dark matter since the 1970s, when observations of rotation in spiral galaxies indicated that there was more mass in these galaxies than we can see. Now, we know this mysterious source of mass, called dark matter, dominates the matter budget in our Universe. Simulations tell us of a web-like Universe but it’s hard to explore this topic observationally because we can’t see dark matter. But the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) Lensing Survey has made the first large scale map of dark matter.
To trace dark matter, the CFHT ...