Normal matter, called baryonic matter in this study, is made of the protons and neutrons that comprise both humans and star stuff. But astronomers could only account for about half of it that should exist in the universe.
To be clear, this is not the detection of dark matter, which accounts for 85% of the universe but has yet to be observed or detected by astronomers. Dark matter is known by how it interacts with other matter, and the quest to find it continues.
The result has squared the cosmic ledger,” said Jean-Pierre Macquart, lead study author and associate professor at the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Australia, in an email to CNN.
“Decades ago, astronomers had been able to infer how much matter existed in of the early universe, but up til now we were only able to account for roughly half of this in the present-day universe. Where had the matter gone?”
“It turned out that it was hiding in a density so low that it does not emit light, it doesn’t absorb it, and it doesn’t reflect it,” he said.
Article submitted by, Darkillusion.