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Nature 433, 465-466 (3 February 2005) | doi:10.1038/433465a; Published online 2 February 2005

Astronomy:  Hot pursuit of missing matter

J. Michael Shull1

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Astronomers are going to extraordinary lengths in the quest to tot up the 'ordinary' matter in the Universe. The latest initiative has probed hot gas in intergalactic space by means of an X-ray lighthouse.

As cosmological measurements have become feasible and more precise, astronomers have undertaken 'cosmic inventories' of mass and energy in all their forms. Nature is quite devious, hiding matter in a range of astronomical objects (stars, planets, galaxies), in intergalactic gas at temperatures of 104 K to 107 K, and in even more exotic forms — so-called dark matter and dark energy.

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