UBC Astronomer Produces First Detailed Map of Dark Matter

Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, UBC researcher Catherine Heymans has produced the highest resolution map of dark matter ever captured. It’s the first time astronomers have been able to see indirect evidence of the invisible web that houses galaxies and causes them to collide and swirl into superclusters.

"Previous studies were only able to detect fuzzy, circular clumps, but we're able to resolve detailed shapes that match the distribution of galaxies," says Heymans, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. See the UBC press release.