IT之家 4 月 21 日消息，長久以來，宇宙中有一部分普通物質（非暗物質）的去向一直困擾著天文學家。據估算，普通物質約佔宇宙總品質的 15%，然而在可觀測的恆星、星系及其他宇宙結構中，卻始終有約一半的普通物質“不翼而飛”。如今，這一謎團或許有了答案。

A large team of researchers from multiple countries found thatThe diffuse hydrogen clouds that surround most galaxies are much larger than previously thought, and are large enough to explain much of the missing matter in the universe。 Simon Ferraro, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley and co-author of the study, said: "The measurements are consistent with the hypothesis of finding all the missing gases. The paper for this study has been published on the preprint server arXiv and is being peer-reviewed for publication in Physical Review Letters.

在此次研究中，研究人員利用美國亞利桑那州基特峰國家天文臺的暗能量光譜儀（DESI）以及智利阿塔卡馬宇宙學望遠鏡的數據展開調查。借助 DESI 的觀測數據，團隊將大約 700 萬星系的圖像疊加，以測量星系邊緣微弱的電離氫氣暈。這些氣暈通常過於微弱，難以用常規方法觀測到。因此，研究團隊轉而測量了這些氣體如何使宇宙微波背景輻射（宇宙大爆炸遺留下來的瀰漫在整個宇宙中的輻射）變暗或變亮。

The research team also found that clouds of ionized hydrogen formed ghostly, near-invisible filamentous structures between galaxies, IT House noted.If this cosmic network connects most galaxies in the universe, it spans enough to explain previously undetected matter.

The discovery could also change our understanding of the behavior of black holes. Scientists initially thought that supermassive black holes at the centers of most galaxies only eject gas early in their lives. However, the presence of such a wide range of diffuse gas clouds suggests that these black holes may be more active than previously thought.

"There is an assumption that black holes will occasionally turn on and off during so-called 'duty cycles.'" This was stated by the study's lead author, Boriana Haziska, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley.

As a next step, the researchers plan to incorporate these new measurements into existing cosmological models. "There is a lot of interest in using our measurements for in-depth analysis, which will include this gas," Haziska said. ”