Researchers from the University of Chicago and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) have released one of the most precise measurements of how matter is distributed across the universe. By combining data from two major telescope surveys, the Dark Energy Survey and the South Pole Telescope, the team of 150 researchers have attempted to understand the forces that shaped the evolution of the universe.
Gravitational lensing, the slight bending of light as it passes objects with strong gravity such as galaxies, is used to infer where all the matter in the universe has ended up. The results, published in Physical Review D, show that matter in the universe is not as clumpy as previously thought, challenging the current model of the universe.
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Chihway Chang, a lead author of the studies, explains that the data from two different telescopes functions like a cross-check, providing a much more robust measurement. The team’s analysis provides new insight into the universe and narrows down the possibilities for where the matter could have ended up.
“The analysis indicates that matter is not as ‘clumpy’ as we would expect based on our current best model of the universe, which adds to a body of evidence that there may be something missing from our existing standard model of the universe,” the researchers state.
This new finding is a landmark in the field as it yields useful information from two very different telescope surveys. By rigorously analyzing these sets of data, scientists can gain a better understanding of what happened after the Big Bang and what forces would have been in play.