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Dark matter and energy

Dark matter and energy

Home » Astronomy and space » Dark matter and energy » Seeing the invisible: using gravitational lensing to map dark matter

Seeing the invisible: using gravitational lensing to map dark matter

26 Jul 2014

Light from distant galaxies is distorted on its journey to us via a vast network of dark matter. By observing this phenomenon, known as gravitational lensing, physicists are able to map the structure of this dark cosmic web, as Catherine Heymans explains

The Abell 2218 galaxy cluster
(Courtesy: NASA, ESA, Hubble)
It’s one of the most memorable moments of my career – and not in a good way. I was giving a talk

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Catherine Heymans is a reader in astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh, UK. She leads the analysis of some of the biggest optical dark-matter surveys, and teaches a free massive open online course, “AstroTech: the science and technology behind astronomical discovery”, on Coursera, e-mail heymans@roe.ac.uk
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