Whereas the universe is made up mostly of dark matter, which is only detectable when it interacts with other objects, another material ever-present is ordinary matter.
Published in the journal Nature, the new study detailed how ordinary matter makes up less than five percent of the universe, though it is the only matter we know on Earth.
"Now we must verify that the discovery of Abell 2744's missing baryons is applicable to the entire universe. This will consist in studying these filamentary regions in detail, and measuring their temperature distribution and the various atoms that compose them, in order to understand how many heavy elements there are in the universe," study lead scientist Dominique Eckert, of the University of Geneva, said in a press release.
Abell 2744 is a galaxy cluster in which scientists have detected matter both dark and luminous at its center.
"Large-scale galaxy surveys have shown that the distribution of ordinary matter in the Universe is not homogeneous. Instead, under the action of gravity, matter is concentrated into filamentary structures, forming a network of knots and links called the 'cosmic web.' The regions experiencing the highest gravitational force collapse and form the knots of the network, such as Abell 2744," read the release detailing the study. "Comparable to neural networks, these knots then connect to one another through filaments, wherein the researchers identified the presence of gas, and consequently, the missing baryons. The astrophysicists pointed XMM in the direction of the areas where they suspected to find the presence of filaments, and therefore, the presence of 10-million degree hot gas structures."
