Great news for Science! Astronomers have made a huge advance in our understanding of the Universe, by finding 'lost matter'. This discovery is paramount in not only supporting the hypothesis (of additional matter being available to find); but, also by expanding our field of understanding. This discovery is supported by the Big Bang Theory and the hypothesized amount of matter distributed by the initial expansion/i.e. big bang. The problem is that our estimates of all galaxies collectively considered, only barely make a dent in what scientists believe was dispersed. This 'missing matter' is what has now been (1/2) found.
This discovery was made by evaluating the light being generated by quasars and the diffusion of that light as it passed through space. These evaluations created the necessary data to work in combination with the current understanding of Baryons (which is ordinary matter - the makeup of elements) and the affect of light when filtering through matter. They then utilized the Hubble Telescope and NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer on the presumed locations in order to look for evidence of the matter & found oxygen and hydrogen. They further speculate/theorize that there are even larger pools of invisible hydrogen in a heated, ionized form. The theory is that the heated hydrogen is invisible due to its temperature being too high for visible light, while being too cool for X-ray detection. They are utilizing known science as well as their observance of other ionized forms of hydrogen (as Hubble picture above illustrates) and ionized oxygen as well as their understanding of dark matter to come to these conclusions.
KAS
