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This new map of the Universe suggests dark matter shaped the cosmos

The eROSITA telescope’s detailed pictures are among the most precise cosmological measurements ever made.
  1. Davide Castelvecchi
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Half of the X-ray sky, projected onto a circle with the centre of the Milky Way on the left and the galactic plane running horizontally.

In this map of a celestial hemisphere — compiled from data from the eROSITA telescope — the colours reflect the wavelengths of X-rays. Hot gas haloes surrounding galaxy clusters have broad-band emissions (white), as do black holes (white dots); diffuse emissions have long wavelengths (red); and in the central regions of the Milky Way, dust blocks longer-wavelength emissions, so that only short-wavelength X-rays are visible (blue or black). Multicoloured clouds are supernova remnants. Credit: MPE, J. Sanders for the eROSITA consortium

Astronomers have reconstructed nearly nine billion years of cosmic evolution by tracing the X-ray glow of distant clusters of galaxies. The analysis supports the standard model of cosmology, according to which the gravitational pull of dark matter — a still-mysterious substance — is the main factor shaping the Universe’s structure.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00489-8

References

  1. Ghirardini, V. et al. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.08458 (2024).

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  3. Madhavacheril, M. S. et al. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.05203 (2023).

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