Dark Matter Lump Discovered Hidden in Einstein Ring

KOMPAS.com – Astronomers have just discovered a mysterious lump of dark matter hiding in the curved light of “Einstein’s rings” – one of the most lovely and complex phenomena in the universe. This discovery is not only amazing, but can also help answer big questions about dark matter which has been the biggest mystery in cosmology.

This object was detected in B1938+666, an Einstein ring located about 10 billion light years from Earth. In telescope images,this ring looks like a circle of light encircling a dark spot in the center – when in fact,the light comes from galaxies far behind,whose light is bent by the gravity of the galaxy ahead.

This phenomenon of light bending is known as gravitational lensing, an effect first described by Albert Einstein in 1915 in his general theory of relativity. when two galaxies are perfectly aligned from our perspective, the light from the more distant galaxy will form a perfect circle of light – this is what is called einstein ring. However, if the alignment is not perfect, the shape can change into a cross, a strange curve, or even a cosmic question mark.

Also read: Einstein’s ring seen in unprecedented detail

Subtle Traces of Something Unseen

B1938+666 was first discovered in the 1990s, but recently scientists discovered something even more amazing inside it. In two new studies published october 9 in the journals Nature Astronomy and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, a team of astronomers noticed a “subtle wobble” in one of the rings’ curves.

“From the first high-resolution image, we immediatly saw a small narrowing in the arc of light. That was a clear sign that something was there,” said John McKean,an astronomer from the University of Groningen (Netherlands) and the University of Pretoria (South Africa).

Analysis suggests the cause is an invisible blob of mass between us and the distant galaxy – most likely dark matter.

Also read: Einstein’s predictions come true in Hubble Telescope photos

Mini Blobs of Dark Matter, But Massive

This hidden object has a mass of about 1 mi