A new study has unveiled that dark matter is more mysterious and weirder in nature than previously thought.

Not only it is difficult to detect but it also makes up 85 percent of the mass of the universe. However, dark matter does not emit any radiation like stars and galaxies, which hinders its direct observation. For the new study, 72 collisions between clusters of galaxies have been analyzed by astrophysicists to detect the movement of stars, clouds of gas and signs of dark matter.

With the aid of the Hubble Space Telescope, observations were taken in visible light and were combined with X-ray images from the Chandra Observatory, NASA’s telescope which has been designed especially for the detection of X-ray emissions from very hot regions of the universe like exploded stars, galaxy clusters and matter around black holes. Information from stars was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope whereas the gas clouds were featured in the Chandra images.

Dark matter does not glow in the electromagnetic spectrum but its gravitational influence on visible matter can be felt. Warping of space-time can bend light passing near dark matter in much the same manner as a lens. Huge amounts of both ordinary and dark matter are present in galaxy clusters. Thus, collisions between systems allow the detection of the influences of dark matter on massive collections of traditional matter. The location of dark matter has been inferred by the scientists by analyzing the behavior of visible matter.

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