student Frank Qu, part of the research team.

“When I first saw them, our measurements were in such good agreement with the underlying theory that it took me a moment to process the results,” said Cambridge Ph.D. However, this new map of inferred dark matter itself is in perfect agreement with the standard model. The key evidence is that background light from stars, rather than from the CMB, results in different measurements of dark matter. Some scientists think the standard model of cosmology-which is built around Einstein’s general theory of relativity-may be broken. “Remarkably, it provides measurements that show that both the ‘lumpiness’ of the universe, and the rate at which it is growing after 14 billion years of evolution, are just what you’d expect from our standard model of cosmology based on Einstein’s theory of gravity.”Ĭurved spacetime caused by gravity is at the core to Einstein's general theory of relativity. “We’ve made a new mass map using distortions of light left over from the Big Bang,” said Mathew Madhavacheril, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania.

The radical theory was proven by photographs of the exact positions of stars taken during a solar eclipse on May 29, 1919. Light travels in a straight line, but space-time is curved by mass, so we observe it in curves.

Just as the trampoline sinks and curves around the ball, mass curves space-time. Einstein’s general theory of relativity, published in 1915, is most easily understood if you think about a bowling ball on a trampoline. Relativity describes what happens when mass is added to that mix. There are four dimensions in space-height, length, width and time. What is Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity?

What is matter made of