Dark Matter.
 

:smile:

Well it looks like dark matter is becoming 'visible' by it effects.

Dark Matter\'s Link to Brilliant Galaxies Confirmed
[url]http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070209_quasar_map.html[/url]

mally :coffee:

[quote=mfgoode;98355]Dark Matter\'s Link to Brilliant Galaxies Confirmed
[URL]http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070209_quasar_map.html[/URL]
[/quote]As hinted by its moniker, "dark matter" is difficult to photograph. Unfortunately, I think this space.com article confuses the reader by referring to a single image (shown in a thumbnail at top of article and again in a sidebar) two different ways, once labelling it as being from a simulation (sidebar under "Images") but the other time (in article text: "The new map [[URL="http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=070209_quasar_map_02.jpg&cap=The+illustration+shows+the+distribution+of+dark+matter%2C+massive+halos%2C+and+luminous+quasars+in+a+simulation+of+the+early+universe%2C+shown+1.6+billion+yea"][COLOR=#810081]image[/COLOR][/URL]] reveals ...") calling it a map from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. (I don't know for sure which is correct, but to me it looks a lot more like a simulation than an actual SDSS map. An SDSS map wouldn't be so cubical, for one thing.)

Perhaps space.com will have corrected the mixup by the time you read this.

For a more "real" image of dark matter, see "UA Astronomers Report First Direct Evidence For Dark Matter" at [URL]http://uanews.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/UANews.woa/8/wa/MainStoryDetails?ArticleID=12956[/URL]. There, the image is artificially colorized to show where the dark matter is concentrated (blue coloring), but at least the galaxies in the image come from an actual photo, not a simulation.

Simulation
 

[QUOTE=cheesehead;98409]As hinted by its moniker, "dark matter" is difficult to photograph. Unfortunately, I think this space.com article confuses the reader by referring to a single image (shown in a thumbnail at top of article and again in a sidebar) two different ways, once labelling it as being from a simulation (sidebar under "Images") but the other time (in article text:

Perhaps space.com will have corrected the mixup by the time you read this.

For a more "real" image of dark matter, see "UA Astronomers Report First Direct Evidence For Dark Matter" at [URL]http://uanews.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/UANews.woa/8/wa/MainStoryDetails?ArticleID=12956[/URL]. There, the image is artificially colorized to show where the dark matter is concentrated (blue coloring), but at least the galaxies in the image come from an actual photo, not a simulation.[/QUOTE]

:rolleyes: Well, naturally the dark matter cannot be seen. The photos of Galaxies show the galaxies no doubt and have the spaces between coloured to 'show' the dark matter.

They have clearly pointed this out and I quote;

"Dark matter is a mysterious hypothetical substance [image] that is thought not to interact with light photons and is thus invisible to current detection instruments."

The image they refer to is a hypothetical substance. How much plainer do you want them to get ?

Mally :coffee:












:

Mally, I apologize for letting my verbosity obscure my message in my previous post. Here I'll be plainer:

The space.com article has a mistake. It has two separate links to the same image, but with different descriptions. At one link, the image is described as being from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II map (of the universe as we actually see it now). At the other link, the image is described as being from a (computer) simulation of the development of the early universe (i.e., it's an artificial depiction of what the universe may have looked like 12 billion years ago).

I know from my astronomical experience that an SDSS map would not look the same as an image from a simulation of the early universe. So one of the space.com's descriptions does not match the image it's linked to.

Based on my experience, I think the correct description of the image at [URL="http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=070209_quasar_map_02.jpg&cap=The+illustration+shows+the+distribution+of+dark+matter%2C+massive+halos%2C+and+luminous+quasars+in+a+simulation+of+the+early+universe%2C+shown+1.6+billion+years+after+the+Big+Bang.+Gray-colored+filamentary+structure+shows+the+distribution+of+dark+matter%3B+small+white+circles+mark+concentrated+%22halos%22+of+dark+matter+more+massive+than+3+trillion+times+the+mass+of+the+sun%3B+larger%2C+blue+circles+mark+the+most+massive+halos%2C+more+than+7+trillion+times+of+the+sun%2C+which+host+the+most+luminous+quasars.+The+strong+clustering+of+the+quasars+in+the+SDSS+sample+demonstrates+that+they+reside+in+these+rare%2C+very+massive+halos.+The+box+shown+is+360+million+light+years+across.+Credit%3A++Paul+Bode+and+Yue+Shen%2C+Princeton+University%0D%0A"]http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=070209_quasar_map_02.jpg&cap=The+illustration+shows+the+distribution+of+dark+matter%2C+massive+halos%2C+and+luminous+quasars+in+a+simulation+of+the+early+universe%2C+shown+1.6+billion+years+after+the+Big+Bang.+Gray-colored+filamentary+structure+shows+the+distribution+of+dark+matter%3B+small+white+circles+mark+concentrated+%22halos%22+of+dark+matter+more+massive+than+3+trillion+times+the+mass+of+the+sun%3B+larger%2C+blue+circles+mark+the+most+massive+halos%2C+more+than+7+trillion+times+of+the+sun%2C+which+host+the+most+luminous+quasars.+The+strong+clustering+of+the+quasars+in+the+SDSS+sample+demonstrates+that+they+reside+in+these+rare%2C+very+massive+halos.+The+box+shown+is+360+million+light+years+across.+Credit%3A++Paul+Bode+and+Yue+Shen%2C+Princeton+University%0D%0A[/URL] is that it came from a simulation of the early universe. The space.com article does not show us, or link to, an actual image from the SDSS II map, even though it claims to link to one.