Previously unknown “bridges” of dark matter between galaxies discovered – research

An international group of astrophysicists has developed a new model of the distribution of dark matter in the local Universe using machine learning – and discovered previously unknown filamentous structures-bridges between galaxies in it. They reported this in the Astrophysical Journal, writes SciTechDaily.

According to the latest data, the observable Universe consists of 4.9% of ordinary matter, 26.8% of dark, and 68.3% of dark energy. Dark matter makes up 85% of the total mass of the Universe, and dark energy with dark matter – up to 95% of the total mass-energy.

The authors trained their model by “driving” into it a large set of simulations of space objects: galaxies, gases, other visible matter, as well as the currently known data on dark matter.

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Then they tested the model on a real picture of the local universe (on objects from the Cosmicflow-3 catalog of galaxies, which contains data on the distribution and motion of more than 17,000 galaxies in the vicinity of the Milky Way within 200 megaparsecs).

Several new structures have been identified that have puzzled scientists, including relatively “small” thread-like structures stretching between galaxies (below – yellow).

“Dark matter dominates the dynamics of the universe and it basically determines our destiny. That is, you can ask the computer to develop a map for the future billions of years to see what will happen in the local universe. You can also” rewind “the model back to understand the history of our space neighborhood “, – the researchers explained their find.

For example, it was previously suggested that our Galaxy and Andromeda could collide billions of years later. By studying the “bridge” of dark matter, connecting two galaxies, you can answer this question more clearly, the authors say.