Article Posted on : - Nov 04, 2009

NEW DELHI (BNS): A study by an international team has revealed that dark matter and dark energy make up 95% of everything in existence, while ordinary matter makes up just 5%.

QUaD researchers have released detailed maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) in a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal. The team focused their measurements on variations in the CMB's temperature and polarization to learn about the distribution of matter in the early universe, a report by Science Daily said on Tuesday.

These measurements of the CMB -- a faintly glowing relic of the hot, dense, young universe -- put limits on proposed alternatives to the standard model of cosmology and provide further support for the standard cosmological model, confirming that dark matter and dark energy make up 95% of everything in existence, while ordinary matter makes up just 5%.

By creating maps of this polarization, the researchers were able to investigate not just where the matter existed, but also how it was moving.

The QUaD results very closely match the temperature and polarization predicted by the existence of dark matter and dark energy in the standard cosmological model, offering further experimental confirmation that the model is correct.

These findings also limit the possibilities of alternative models, reinforcing the view that researchers are on the right track and need to learn more about the strange nature of dark energy and dark matter if they are to fully understand the workings of the universe.

"Microwave background observations are about the most technically challenging in contemporary astrophysics and cosmology," said Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) Director Roger Blandford. "It is wonderful to see such solid measurements and such a clear confirmation of the theory."

The research team was co-led by Sarah Church deputy director of KIPAC and the U.S. principal investigator of the QUaD projec and by Walter Gear, of Cardiff University in the United Kingdom.

The QUaD (QUEST at DASI) project utilizes the Q U Extra-galactic Survey Telescope (QUEST) instrument at the South Pole that was installed on the mechanical structure from a previous experiment called DASI (Degree Angular Scale Interferometer).