Einstein's ring reveals the mystery of dark matter.

(Dan Tri Newspaper) - According to researchers, this could be the smallest pure dark matter ever discovered.

Strange object, discovered for the first time.

The object appears in infrared light, depicted in white (Image source: Research team).

A massive mass of dark matter, 1 million times the mass of the Sun, has just been discovered. It lies approximately 10 billion light-years away from us and, remarkably, contains no stars.

This makes it a strong candidate for the smallest pure dark matter ever recorded. This discovery not only strengthens the cold dark matter (CDM) model but also places tighter constraints on the nature and behavior of dark matter particles, as physicists and astronomers continue to search for the “invisible thing” that governs the structure of the universe.

The discovery stemmed from observations of Einstein's rings, a fascinating lensing phenomenon. In this phenomenon, a large mass in the foreground distorts space and bends light from the galaxy in the background to form a ring of light around the foreground galaxy.

Interestingly, scientists only accidentally discovered the strange object while analyzing radio wave and infrared imagery of the tornado.

Specifically, they observed an unusual notch in the light ring, which could only be explained by the presence of an invisible mass sandwiched between the light path and the observation point.

To clarify this phenomenon, the research team used a global network of radio telescopes to create an "Earth-sized telescope" capable of extremely high resolution. The larger the baseline, the more detail the team could see in the lensed light structure.

Upon closer examination, they discovered a "notch" in the radio light spectrum, a phenomenon that could only be explained by a massive object situated between the background and foreground galaxies.

The key to understanding the nature of dark matter

Einstein's ring may have helped humanity find the smallest amount of dark matter (Image: Research team).

The research team said the observational data is consistent with the cold dark matter model, which is fundamental to our understanding of how galaxies form over time.

Chris Fassnacht, a member of the team, stated: "The discovery of objects with such low mass is key to understanding the nature of dark matter."

However, there are currently two separate hypotheses for this object. In the first case, the object could be an inactive dwarf galaxy. In the second case, the object is a completely pure mass of dark matter, meaning it contains no stellar components whatsoever.

If confirmed to be dark matter, it would be the smallest dark object ever detected, being nearly 100 times smaller than previously observed dark objects.

Accordingly, this discovery is not only a milestone in astronomy but also a challenge to the theory of dark matter: can we believe that dark matter is uniformly distributed and smooth, or is it actually "bumpy" with very small, pure clumps?

What is the phenomenon of gravitational lensing – Einstein's ring?

Gravitational lensing is the phenomenon where light from a distant object (such as a galaxy or quasar) is bent as it passes through a region of space with very high mass (such as a galaxy, galaxy cluster, or black hole).

When the light source, the object bends, and the observer is aligned almost perfectly, the light is bent into a complete bright circle, called the Einstein ring, first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1936.

This phenomenon allows astronomers to "see" non-luminous objects like dark matter, as it reveals the invisible mass that is distorting space.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/khoa-hoc/vong-einstein-he-lo-bi-an-ve-vat-chat-toi-20251014084039095.htm