For years, astronomers have been searching for the missing matter in the universe. But recently, a team of scientists managed to find it after a series of unique events.
First, it is important to understand that we are not talking about dark matter. Dark matter is still missing, and there are many theories about it, explaining its presence in the universe and the role it plays.
Here, we are talking about missing ordinary matter, which is made up of baryons and is too scattered to emit any source of light that can be detected by space instruments such as telescopes. And if you think this matter is insignificant, it is important to understand that it still represents more than half of all ordinary matter in the universe.
Five years ago, researchers set out to find it. To accomplish this mission, they used 69 fast radio bursts (FRBs), located between 11.74 million and 9.1 billion light-years away, which produce astronomical amounts of energy in just a few milliseconds with long and short wavelengths.
The difference between the long wavelengths, shown here in red, emitted by fast radio bursts (FRBs), and the shorter wavelengths, shown in blue. (Image source: Melissa Weiss, CFA)
Continuing their research, the researchers know that when radio waves pass through matter, they arrive in a shifted manner. Therefore, by measuring this delay, it seems possible to estimate the amount of matter present in space.
On this subject, Vikram Ravi, a researcher at Caltech and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics involved in this study, explains: "It's like we're seeing the shadow of all the baryons, with FRBs as the backlight. If you see a person in front of you, you can find out a lot about them. But if you just see their shadow, you still know that they're there and roughly how big they are."
The results revealed that 76% of normal matter is found in intergalactic space, located between galaxies. Only 15% resides in galactic halos, and the rest is concentrated in galaxies, stars, and cold galactic gas. This conclusion is consistent with cosmological simulations that have been conducted in the past but have never been validated.
However, this discovery is only the beginning for scientists engaged in this quest. Caltech's DSA-2000 radio telescope will build on these studies to understand this element. And that's not to mention a major advantage, as it will be capable of locating up to 10,000 FRBs per year.
Alexis Stegmann - Tech Writer - 248 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2025
I've been working in the field of web writing for several years, and I'm passionate about keeping readers up to date with the latest news on astronomy, technology, the world of video games and other exciting subjects. In particular, I've had the opportunity to work on a number of websites, which has enabled me to cover a wide range of subjects. In my personal life, I'm passionate about a wide range of subjects, including astronomy, video games, history and science. I'm also drawn to psychology, which is a subject that deserves greater documentation and recognition.
