ESA and ESO contribute to first observation of dark matter object
Astronomers using the NASA-European space agency (ESA) Hubble Space Telescope and the European southern observatory's (ESO's) Very Large Telescope have observed a dark matter object for the first time The astronomers used the instruments to observe a MACHO (massive compact object) microlens, a dwarf star that gravitationally focuses light from a star in another galaxy. The result goes some way towards solving the 'riddle' of dark matter by adding weight to the theory that a large proportion of it exists as small, faint stars in galaxies such as our Milky Way. The nature of dark matter is one of the fundamental puzzles in modern astrophysics. Observations of galaxies have revealed that no more than a quarter of the total amount of matter in the Universe consists of the normal atoms and molecules that make up our environment on Earth. Of this 'normal' matter, only about a quarter emits the radiation observed from stars and hot gas. Therefore a large fraction of the matter in our Universe is dark and of unknown composition.