Dark matter
Dark matter is an invisible, mysterious substance believed to make up more than a quarter of the universe. Astronomers have long suspected there must be some substance holding galaxy clusters together, otherwise galaxies would only have the gravity from their visible stars, which would not be enough to keep them from flying apart. As a result, astronomers have inferred dark matter exists by observing how its gravity bends the light of more distant background galaxies. A few days ago, the Hubble Space Telescope spotted a ring of dark matter in a galaxy cluster some five billion light-years away from Earth, presenting the most solid proof yet of the existence of dark matter.
暗物質
暗物質是一種看不見的神秘物質,據信佔了全宇宙的四分之一以上。天文學家們長久以來便懷疑某種物質維繫著星系團,否則星系間將只有可見星的重力,並不足以阻止它們向四處飛散。結果,天文學家們籍由觀察因重力彎曲、更遠處的星系光,推論出暗物質的存在。日前,哈伯太空望遠鏡觀測到距地球約五十億光年、星系群中的環狀暗物質,為暗物質的存在提供了截至目前最有力的證明。
original source:
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/cp/guidepost/
pop-up key word:
science, the power of knowledge, astronomy, galaxy, universe, space, dark material, space station,
personal opinions:
It is a controversial issue that should we spend a great number of money to study the world outside our planet. Astronomers believe that the more we get to know about the space, the more we understand what we are. Nevertheless, others think the money shouldn’t be wasted on such a time-consuming research. Practically, they prefer to spend money on something they can see. Although some groundbreaking discover on astronomy do help us to learn more about both the earth and university, others cannot really related that with their daily lives. Maybe that’s the main reason people don’t be aware of the importance of astronomy study.