Astronomers have discovered that 80 percent of all light in the universe is missing. The finding is the result of observations made by an instrument onboard the 'Hubble Space Telescope' called the ‘Cosmic Origins Spectrograph’.
In a remarkable discovery, astronomers have found that 80 percent of all light in the universe is missing. The finding is the result of observations made by an instrument onboard the 'Hubble Space Telescope' called the ‘Cosmic Origins Spectrograph’.
The issue is related to hydrogen tendrils that bridge the galaxies. They're in fact lighting up, but they are emitting too much light. That means we can’t see the lights in general and the sources the beams radiate from.
When the hydrogen tendrils are hit by energetic ultraviolet light, they typically change from electrically neutral atoms to charged ions.
But as a University of Colorado Boulder press release notes, "The astronomers were surprised when they found far more hydrogen ions than could be explained with the known ultraviolet light in the universe, which comes primarily from quasars. The difference is a stunning 400 percent."
Ohio State University's David Weinberg, who co-authored the paper on the hydrogen tendrils remarked “We still don't know for sure what it is, but at least one thing we thought we knew about the present day universe isn't true."
