Dark matter steps into light

  • 08/01/2007

  • Statesman (New Delhi)

One of the largest mysteries of the Universe is about to be unravelled with the first detailed, three-dimensional map of Dark Matter - the invisible material that makes up most of the cosmos. Astronomers announced that they have achieved the apparently impossible task of building every attempt to detect it since its existence was first postulated in 1933. Unlike the ordinary matter of the planets, stars and galaxies, which can be seen through telescopes or detected by scientific instruments, nobody has seen dark matter or knows what it is made of, though calculations suggest that it is at least six times bigger than the rest of the visible universe combined.