A team of astrophysicists and computer programmers have created an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that plots the local Universe. The program charts and explains the structure and dynamics of the Milky Way and several nearby galaxies. It will be used to study how these galaxies came into being.
The team, led by Francisco Kitaura of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam, created the AI algorithm by assuming gravity drives the Universe’s distribution. Gravitation is caused by two of the three components making up the universe: ‘Normal’ matter, such as stars, planets, and gas (which constitutes five per cent of the Universe), and invisible dark matter (which constitutes 23 per cent of the Universe). Dark matter, invisible to telescopes, is difficult to map and prevents conventional methods from predicting the gravitational force.
The algorithm detects the residual heat from the Big Bang (the cosmic microwave background radiation) and with the AI, models it to matter that is expected collapse over the next 13 billion years. This creates an accurate plot of both dark and normal matter. The gravitation force calculated from this plot can then be used to explain the motion and 80 per cent of the speed of local galaxies. The remaining 20 per cent is from the influence of matter greater than 460 million light years away, which does not yet have reliable data.
The program will give the work of Universal mapping speed and clarity, compared to the conventional scanning of the sky.
Source: Science Daily
