Space Scan

To be successful in an oblivion venture all that is needed is not only painstaking calculations and a really big telescope – but, bolstered optimism. Then how can one measure something he can’t see or feel!? That is what a researcher at Cambridge University’s Institute of Astronomy in England did. The scientists announced last week that they may be a step closer to identifying properties of dark matter. He took the help of data from the world’s most advanced optical array.



It keeps rotating galaxies from spinning apart. The mysterious yet pervasive substance could be this “cosmic glue”.

Gerry Gilmore, a professor of experimental philosophy and lead researcher on the project said, “Pretty much nothing had been known about dark matter… All that we knew was that it was transparent and it was heavy. We knew it had weight because it’s what holds stars in the sky; without it they’d all fly off into space.”