These galaxy clusters are part of a large study using Chandra and Hubble that sets new limits on how dark matter — the mysterious substance that makes up most of the matter in the Universe — interacts with itself. The hot gas that envelopes the clusters glows brightly in X-rays detected by Chandra (pink). When combined with Hubble’s visible light data, astronomers can map where the stars and hot gas are after the collision, as well as the inferred distribution of dark matter (blue) through the effect of gravitational lensing. (Smithsonian Institution public domain image)
If the theorizing mentioned in this article is at all correct, the universe has just become even stranger than it already was:
“I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine,” remarked the British geneticist and evolutionary biologist J. B. S. Haldane (d. 1964). “Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.”
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