Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have mapped the largest section of the universe's dark matter yet, deepening our understanding of how this mysterious substance shapes the cosmic landscape.
Dark matter is notoriously difficult to study because it does not interact with light. Astronomers can detect it only by looking at its gravitational effects on baryonic, or "ordinary," matter. Observations of these interactions reveal that there is about five times as much dark matter in the universe as normal matter.
