Star award for dark matter research

A Durham astrophysicist has been named as a rising star of research and innovation for her work on the mysterious substance that makes up a large part of the universe. Dr Mathilde Jauzac has been appointed as a Future Leader Fellow by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) for her research into dark matter. Fellowships recognise up and coming researchers, providing them with funding to tackle big challenges. Dark matter Mathilde's award will allow her to make full use of her observation time on the Hubble Space Telescope to look at distant galaxy clusters to understand more about what dark matter is. Dark matter makes up about 27 per cent of the universe, but it's invisible and scientists only know it's there because of its gravitational effects on galaxies and galaxy clusters. Researchers believe galaxies like our Milky Way would pull themselves apart as they spin without the constraining gravitational effects of dark matter. Distant galaxies By observing distant galaxy clusters, Mathilde will develop new techniques to look at different wavelengths of light - like infrared, ultraviolet and X-ray light - at the same time to see matter being sucked into the cluster.