One of the greatest mysteries of the universe is about to be unravelled with the first detailed, three-dimensional map of dark matter – the invisible material that makes up most of the cosmos.

Astronomers announced yesterday that they have achieved the apparently impossible task of creating a picture of something that has defied every attempt to detect it since its existence was first postulated in 1933.

The Universe gives up its deepest secret: The Independent

We know very little about this material. The breakthrough is the result of internatinal co-operation in the scientific community.

A team of 70 astronomers from Europe, America and Japan used the Hubble space telescope to build up a picture of dark matter in a vast region of space where some of the galaxies date back to half the age of the universe – nearly 7 billion years.

When there are such mind-bogglingly amazing things still to be learnt about the universe, why must some people ignore science and invent supernatural stories about one tiny planet that are nowhere near as interesting as this?

Tags: Universal+dark+matter, Universe, Mystery, Science