Even pure logic would have suggested that this missing matter might to be found in intergalactic space. Or was the Dark Matter/Energy speculation so much more popular and captivating that it drowned out other, more bland sounding theories.
"After an intergalactic search lasting more than two decades, an Australian-led team of scientists say they have finally found the universe's "missing matter", solving a mystery that has long stumped astronomers.
Since the mid-90s, scientists have been trying to locate half of the universe's ordinary matter. ... "It's been a true embarrassment that we haven't been able to find it," said Professor Xavier Prochaska, an astronomer from the University of California, Santa Cruz. ...
That was until they started to measure fast radio bursts — brief flashes of intense energy found racing across the universe — and discovered the missing matter hiding in the cold dispersed gas between galaxies."
"More than three-quarters of the baryonic content of the Universe resides in a highly diffuse state that is difficult to detect, with only a small fraction directly observed in galaxies and galaxy clusters ... Censuses of the nearby Universe have used absorption line spectroscopy to observe the ‘invisible’ baryons, but these measurements rely on large and uncertain corrections and are insensitive to most of the Universe’s volume and probably most of its mass."
Astronomers find 'missing matter', solving decades-long mystery of outer space - ABC News
Here is the underlying research paper:
A census of baryons in the Universe from localized fast radio bursts
"After an intergalactic search lasting more than two decades, an Australian-led team of scientists say they have finally found the universe's "missing matter", solving a mystery that has long stumped astronomers.
Since the mid-90s, scientists have been trying to locate half of the universe's ordinary matter. ... "It's been a true embarrassment that we haven't been able to find it," said Professor Xavier Prochaska, an astronomer from the University of California, Santa Cruz. ...
That was until they started to measure fast radio bursts — brief flashes of intense energy found racing across the universe — and discovered the missing matter hiding in the cold dispersed gas between galaxies."
"More than three-quarters of the baryonic content of the Universe resides in a highly diffuse state that is difficult to detect, with only a small fraction directly observed in galaxies and galaxy clusters ... Censuses of the nearby Universe have used absorption line spectroscopy to observe the ‘invisible’ baryons, but these measurements rely on large and uncertain corrections and are insensitive to most of the Universe’s volume and probably most of its mass."
Astronomers find 'missing matter', solving decades-long mystery of outer space - ABC News
Here is the underlying research paper:
A census of baryons in the Universe from localized fast radio bursts
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