New map of dark matter supports Einstein’s theory of general relativity
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In the early 1900s, Albert Einstein proposed the theory of general relativity, which challenged everything scientists believed they understood about the universe at the time. Over the years, scientists have questioned whether this theory was true. However, a newly created dark matter map finally gives undeniable proof.
We must first look at Einstein’s original theory to fully understand this new development. Before Einstein proposed the theory of general relativity, scientists believed space to be almost featureless and changeless. Further, they thought that time flowed at its own pace, oblivious to clocks that tried to measure it, as Isaac Newton had suggested two centuries earlier.
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However, Einstein proposed that both space and time were one force, spacetime, and that matter within this ever-changing stage was controlled by the curving path that gravity dictated. But to create gravity, we needed mass, a force so strong it could literally curve spacetime around it. This is where dark matter comes into play.
Dark matter is an invisible force found throughout our universe in vast quantities. It, scientists believe, is the force creating the gravity pull that determines how the universe curves and moves. But we’ve never been able to map dark matter out, at least not until now.
Despite making up 85 percent of the universe’s matter, dark matter has always been hard to detect. We can see the effects it has, but creating a dark matter map and actually seeing where it exists was almost impossible.
But now, researchers using the Atacama Cosmology Telescope have done just that. The researchers used the light from the cosmic microwave background to detect all the matter between us and the light from the Big Bang. This allowed them to map the dark matter hiding within our universe.
The image showcases where the dark matter is; according to scientists, it’s precisely where previous theories have suggested. Now that we have a map of the dark matter found throughout our universe, we can finally prove once and for all that Albert Einstein’s theory was correct, a theory that others have only helped expand and clarify.
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