Scientists are in the process of confirming the existence of an esoteric substance called

‘Dark Matter.’ This is an ethereal primordial material that permeates the universe and is

more ubiquitous than the more mundane protons, electrons and neutrons that are more

familiar to most people.

Several scientists have endeavored to create a novel and unique perspective of the

universe hitherto unimagined in other scientific circles. Dr. Ignacio Ferreras of London,

Dr. Prasenjit Saha of Switzerland and Scott Burles of MIT used a novel technique to

discover a great deal of details about mysterious substance known as ‘Dark Matter.’

Scientists have known for some time that a distortion effect is set up by a massive object

in the path of an extremely remote powerful light source. The light approaching such an

enormous object or groups of objects such as a closely associated group of galaxies is

skewed in such a predetermined fashion properties related to the origin of the light can be

estimated. This effect of the bending of light as a result of the proximity of enormous

gravity wells is known as ‘Gravitational Lensing’ and is predicted by the Theory of

General Relativity.

Ferreras, Saha and Burles were attempting to organize a galactic perspective on the

distribution of dark matter in the night sky. In fact, it would be most appropriate to state

that they were creating a map of this unique phenomenon at a distance of several billion

light years. The term light year, for those that do not know, refers to a unit of distance

not time as is first implied. More particularly, it refers to the distance that light travels in

one year. Given the incredible velocity of light, several billion light years amounts to an

extremely remote observation point. Given the incredible distances involved, this

prediction truly tested the extreme limits of technology until it was confirmed in the late

20th century.

Upon observing the images received from such sources, the objects appear distorted in

such a fashion that arcs, multiple images or similar type of effects can be detected in an

observed source. All of these of course are dependent upon the locations of the source of

the light, the gravity well or ‘lens’ and the observer’s position relative to the

aforementioned. Other factors play into the distortion effect received at the observer’s

location including the nature and shape of the ‘lensing’ object. It should be noted that

there are several types of ‘lensings’ that are used to determine various statistically

important facts relating to light sources.

The first is known as ‘weak lensing’ and is found using advanced manipulation of the

observational data taking into consideration the various other objects that can affect the

observed object’s light. Next, in ‘microlensing,’ the amount of viewable light changes

with time even though there is no specific detectable change in an object’s geometry.

The third type of lensing takes the form of multiples representations of the distance object

under observation as well as arcs and annular images of the object. Equipped with all of

this technological knowledge and in a profound and exotic analysis of information the

team gleaned valuable data from the Hubble telescope and hashed it together with

galactic light from theoretical predictions. The effective result is a stellar cartographers

dream – a chart of dark matter billions of miles away in the eternal cold of space. It is

hoped by the trio that the data collected and sifted so assiduously will aid the

understanding of galactic evolution.