2026-01-26 NASA
Containing nearly 800,000 galaxies, this image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is overlaid with a map of dark matter, represented in blue. Researchers used Webb data to find the invisible substance via its gravitational influence on regular matter.NASA/STScI/J. DePasquale/A. Pagan
＜関連情報＞
- https://www.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasa-reveals-new-details-about-dark-matters-influence-on-universe/
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02763-9
超高解像度の（暗黒）物質地図 An ultra-high-resolution map of (dark) matter
Diana Scognamiglio,Gavin Leroy,David Harvey,Richard Massey,Jason Rhodes,Hollis B. Akins,Malte Brinch,Edward Berman,Caitlin M. Casey,Nicole E. Drakos,Andreas L. Faisst,Maximilien Franco,Leo W. H. Fung,Ghassem Gozaliasl,Qiuhan He,Hossein Hatamnia,Eric Huff,Natalie B. Hogg,Olivier Ilbert,Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe,Anton M. Koekemoer,Shouwen Jin,Erini Lambrides,Alexie Leauthaud,… John R. Weaver
Nature Astronomy Published:26 January 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02763-9
Abstract
Ordinary matter—including particles such as protons and neutrons—accounts for only about one-sixth of all matter in the Universe. The rest is dark matter, which does not emit or absorb light but plays a fundamental role in galaxy and structure evolution. Because it interacts only through gravity, one of the most direct probes is weak gravitational lensing: the deflection of light from distant galaxies by intervening mass. Here we present an extremely detailed, wide-area weak-lensing mass map covering 0.77° × 0.70°, using high-resolution imaging from the James Webb Space Telescope as part of the COSMOS-Web survey. By measuring the shapes of 129 galaxies per square arcminute—many independently in the F115W and F150W bands—we achieve an angular resolution of 1.00±0.01‘. Our map has more than twice the resolution of earlier Hubble Space Telescope maps, revealing how dark and luminous matter co-evolve across filaments, clusters and underdensities. It traces mass features out to z ≈ 2, including the most distant structure at z ≈ 1.1. The sensitivity to high-redshift lensing constrains galaxy environments at the peak of cosmic star formation and sets a high-resolution benchmark for testing theories about the nature of dark matter and the formation of large-scale cosmic structure.
