A new high-resolution map of distant galaxies may help scientists better understand dark matter, the invisible substance that comprises more than a quarter of the universe. The map, created using images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, was published this week in the journal Nature Astronomy. The observations capture hundreds of thousands of galaxies spanning 10 billion years of cosmic history.
Dark matter does not absorb or emit light, making direct observation impossible. Scientists study it by observing how its gravity warps the light from distant galaxies — a technique that has now produced its most detailed map to date.
Ordinary matter — the stars, planets, and all living things — comprises just 5 percent of the universe. Dark matter makes up more than 25 percent. The remainder belongs to dark energy, a force whose nature remains equally mysterious.
The Nature of Dark Matter
Dark matter has never been directly observed. The invisible substance does not absorb or emit light. Scientists study it instead by observing how its gravity warps and bends the light from distant galaxies. By mapping these gravitational distortions across the cosmos, researchers gradually reveal where dark matter exists and how it has evolved.
Mapping the Invisible
A new high-resolution map now offers the clearest view yet of dark matter’s distribution. Created using images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the map has twice the resolution of previous attempts with the Hubble Space Telescope and captures hundreds of thousands of galaxies spanning 10 billion years of cosmic history.
“Now, we can see everything more clearly,” said Diana Scognamiglio, a study author at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The research was published this week in Nature Astronomy. The map shows information on galaxy clusters and the strands of dark matter that connect them. Piece by piece, these structures form what scientists call the skeleton of the universe.
By analyzing this map, researchers can observe how dark matter has accumulated and clumped over billions of years — a fundamental insight into how the universe developed its current large-scale structure and distribution of galaxies.
Dark Matter’s Cosmic Role
Dark matter passes silently through the human body and through all of Earth every moment. The substance has shaped every star and every galaxy in existence, yet most people remain unaware of its presence.
“As humans, we’re naturally curious to know more about where we come from and that story can’t be told without dark matter,” said Rutuparna Das, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Das was not involved in the research.
“Our home is the universe and we want to understand what the nature of it is,” Das added.