"Gravity helps astronomers see the unseen"

Dense galaxy-size 'lenses' and the fact that light is bent by dark matter let researchers peer deeper into the universe.

Research has shown that dark matter has a gravitational effect that bends light, confirming dark matter's existence in the universe despite the fact that we can't actually see dark matter. Astronomers have recently began to notice small strong gravitational lenses in Hubble images, which could be caused by this dark matter deflecting light from distant galaxies. The article explains that "The images these produce of more distant galaxies could be used to create a census of galaxy masses throughout the universe. That could, in turn, be used to test predictions of cosmological theories." The research concludes so far that the universe consists of a huge invisible web of dark-matter structures that is at least 2000 times larger than the Milky.

"Dr. Fu says that what they have observed so far 'confirms' that the current model of dark matter structure is 'correct even on those very large scales.' His institute colleague Yannick Mellier adds, 'These results show that weak gravitational lensing is a reliable and accurate technique for cosmology [research].'"

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