Studying the mysterious form of matter around ancient quasar galaxies could have profound implications for our understanding of how the cosmos evolved.
A team of astronomers has, for the first time,"weighed" dark matter haloes surrounding actively feeding supermassive black holes in the bright hearts of ancient galaxies.
Related: Dark matter could be building up inside dead stars — with potentially explosive consequences Not only is that unexpected, but because supermassive black holes at the hearts of galaxies strongly influence the formation of stars and the growth of galaxies in general, this could have a profound impact on scientists' understanding of how galaxies grew in the early universe and, thus, how the cosmos evolved.
But even as these dark matter inference techniques are refined, measuring the mass of this unseeable substance in haloes around nearby galaxies is tricky. And measuring dark matter around more distant, and thus early, galaxies has been proven more challenging because light coming from these galaxies is so faint.
Related Stories:—For the 1st time, scientists accidentally measure the swirling ring around a black holeIn 2016, Kashikawa and the team started collecting infrared data from a range of astronomical surveys conducted by a variety of instruments, primarily the Subaru Telescope at the summit of Maunakea, Hawaii.
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