Reidar Hahn/Fermilab
The new map is the product of years of work by a group of 400 scientists from seven countries, known as the Dark Energy Survey (DE.S). . . .(more)
In a series of studies published this week, the team showed that the universe is peppered with giant clusters of galaxies bunched together — regions where dark matter, too, is densely packed. But their map, which covers about one-eighth of the sky as seen from Earth, also documents patches of the universe that are nearly devoid of both dark matter and galaxies. These cluttered and empty areas appear to be connected by interstellar gas in a cosmic web.
“It shows us new parts of the universe that we’ve never seen before. We can really see this cosmic web structure, including these enormous structures called cosmic voids, which are very low-density regions of the universe where there are very few galaxies and less matter,” Niall Jeffrey, a cosmologist at University College London, told the Guardian.
Source: Business Insider Live Science