Scientist find that 80 percent of all light in the Universe is missing

[Valin]

Sploid
7/10/14

 

According to observations made by the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on board the Hubble Space Telescope, the Universe is missing 80 percent of all its light. Astronomers are completely baffled: "We still don't know for sure what it is, but at least one thing we thought we knew about the present day universe isn't true."

 

Those are the strong words of the co-author of the paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters by Ohio State University's David Weinberg. The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph detected that the tendrils of hydrogen that bridge the galaxies are not lighting up as expected. They are lighting up too much and we can see neither the light nor the sources from which the light is coming from:

 

 

When these hydrogen atoms are struck by highly energetic ultraviolet light, they are transformed from electrically neutral atoms to charged ions. The astronomers were surprised when they found far more hydrogen ions than could be explained with the known ultraviolet light in the universe, which comes primarily from quasars. The difference is a stunning 400 percent.

 

 

A new mystery that may be pinned on Dark Matter

 

Astrophysicists don't know what is happening and what is responsible for the effects we are seeing on the hydrogen tendrils. They only know that this finding matches neither our understanding of hydrogen in the Universe nor our current simulations. And the mystery gets even weirder when you compare their results in the near and faraway Universe:

 

(Snip)

 

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[nickydog]

I didn't know there is light in the universe.

[Pepper]

Scientist find that 80 percent of all light in the Universe is missing

 

It's all clustered around our Fearless Reader

 

 

 

[clearvision]

I could make a space reference about no light being able to escape from said leader because he is like a ....

 

But it would be way to racially insensitive of me.

[Draggingtree]

I could make a space reference about no light being able to escape from said leader because he is like a ....

 

But it would be way to racially insensitive of me.

But go ahead, I'll let it pass one time